^^  OF  P^l^^^. 


i^OlOGICAL  StVA^ 


BV  660    .M54    1878 

tdiller,   John  C. 

Letters  to  a  young  clergyman 


LETTERS    TO  A    YOUNG   CLERGYMAN. 


LETTERS 


TO   A 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN 


JOHN  C  MILLER,  D.D., 

CANON    RESII)ENTLA.RY   OF    ROCHESTER,    VICAR    AND    RURAL    DEAN 

OF   GREENWICH,    EXAMINING   CHAPLAIN    To    THE 

LORD    BISHOP   OF    ROCHESTER. 


LONDON : 
HODDER     AND     STOUGHTON, 

27,  PATERNOSTER  ROW. 

MDCCCLXXVIII. 


Hazell,  Watson,  and  Viney,  Printers,  London  and  Aylesbury. 


RIGHT   REVETIKND    FATHER   IN   GOD^ 

ANTHONY  WILSON  THOROLD,  D.D,, 

LORD    BISHOP  OF   ROCHESTER^ 
THESE   LETTERS 

ARE, 

BY   PERMISSION^ 
INSCRIBED,   WITH   GRATEFUL   RESPECT, 

BY 

HIS   lordship's   FAITHFUL  AND  AFFECTIONATE  CHAPLAIN^ 

JOHN    C.    MILLER. 


The  Vicarage, 

Greenwich  Park, 

Dece77iber  27,  1877. 


CONTENTS 


i.  the  apportionment  of  the  minister's  time 

to  the  various  duties  of  his  ministry       i 

ii.  the  apportionment  of  the  minister's  time 

to  the  various  duties  of  his  ministry      17 

iii.  the  work  of  the  ministry 29 

iv.  pulpit  preparation 45 

v.  the  work  of  the  ministry     .        .        .        .    71 

vi.  the  theology  of  our  sermons      .        .        -93 

vii.  the  work  of  the  ministry — visitation       .  ii9 

viii.  the    work     of    the     ministry— visitation 

(continued) 139 

ix.  the     work    of    the     ministry — visitation 

(continued).        ...  .        .   167 

X.    PUBLIC   catechizing— SCHOOLS — BIBLE    CLASSES 

— CONFIRMATION 1 83 

XI.    SURPLICE   DUTY      .  .  .  .  .  .  .    213 

XII.  MISCELLANEOUS  COUNSELS 22$ 

XIII.  LECTURE   ON   PREACHING 245 


vyv^/V' 


LETTERS    TO    A    YOUNG 
CLERGYMAN. 


I. 

TJie  Apportionment  of  the  Minister's  Time  to  the 
Various  Ditties  of  his  Ministry. 

My  dear  Brother, — You  are  now  a  minister 
of  Jesus  Christ.  The  vows  of  God  are  upon 
you,  with  a  solemnity  then  only  to  become 
more  solemn,  when,  by  His  grace,  you  shall 
have  **  used  the  office  of  a  deacon  well," 
and  shall  be  admitted  to  a  higher  order  of 
the  ministry. 

Often,  I  doubt  not,  under  an  almost  over- 
whelming consciousness  of  the  weakness 
of  self,  you  have  asked,  '*  Who  is  sufficient 
for  these  things  ?  "  And  your  strength 
and  comfort  have  been  found  in  this  :  '*  My 
^  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness." 

I 


2  LETTERS   TO  A 

In  asking  you  to  read  a  few  letters  from 
me,  as  from  an  elder  brother  in  the  ministry, 
whose  lot  has  been  cast,  with  the  very  brief 
exception  of  his  first  curacy,  in  large  parishes, 
I  do  not  propose  to  enlarge  upon  the  dignity 
and  responsibilities  of  your  office.  I  have 
not  undertaken  to  write  a  treatise  on  the 
ministry,  but  a  few  letters  on  the  details  of 
ministerial  work. 

In  this  my  first  letter,  let  me  try  to  put 
myself  by  your  side,  as,  on  the  first  day  of 
your  settling  down  in  the  parish  which  is 
to  be  the  scene  of  your  earliest  labours,  you 
contemplate,  in  the  silence  and  solitude  of 
your  study,  the  various  departments  of  your 
work. 

Whatever  be  the  character  of  your  parish 
— whether  large,  moderate,  or  small ;  whether 
agricultural,  manufacturing,  or  commercial ; 
whether  you  are  called  to  minister  to  the 
higher,  middle,  or  lower  classes,  or  to  all — 
you  will  naturally  feel  that  if  you  are  to 
work  systematically,  you  must  estimate  the 
comparative  importance  of  the  varied  calls  upon 
your  time  and  strength^  and  do  your  best,  as 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  3 

being  yet  inexperienced,  to  adjust  their 
claims.  For  it  is  to  be  hoped  that,  while 
experience  will  teach  you  that  you  must  not 
be  the  slave  of  system,  but  must  yield  when 
sudden  and  pressing  calls  to  duty  require 
elasticity,  you  will  determine  that  your  work 
must  not  be  done  in  a  hap-hazard  fashion. 
Some  system  is  essential,  if  only  for  this 
reason,  that  some  of  your  duties  will,  almost 
certainly,  be  less  pleasing  than  others  ;  and 
these,  without  systematic  recognition,  will 
too  often  be  neglected  for  the  more 
pleasant. 

First,  and  as  of  an  importance  which  can- 
not be  overrated,  no  amount  of  pressure  of 
work  for  others  must  lead  you  to  neglect 
your  own  spiritual  life.  Nothing  can  justify 
this.  Nothing  compensate  for  it.  To  nourish 
this  is  no  less  a  duty  to  your  people  than  to 
yourself. 

Hurry,  bustle,  excitement,  and  even  rush, 
are  characteristics  of  the  days  in  which  we 
live.  They  are,  to  far  too  great  an  extent, 
characteristic  of  the  ministry  of  very  many. 
And  it  is  but  too  plain  that  they  have  told — 


4  •  LETTERS  TO  A 

and  are  telling — upon  the  tone  of  not  a  few 
of  the  best  among  us. 

No  words  can  express  too  earnestly  my 
conviction,  nor  convey  to  you  too  urgently 
my  counsel,  that  you  must  resolutely  deter- 
mine that,  whatever  is  left  undone,  you  must 
set  a  hedge,  an  impenetrable  one,  around 
your  seasons  of  personal  communion  with 
God. 

Your  study  must  first  be  your  oratory. 
You  must  lock  and  bolt  and  bar  it. 

Not  only  bene  orasse,  but  scBpe  orasse,  will 
be  the  secret  of  your  strength.  Here  must 
you  begin  and  end  your  day  by  looking  up. 
Hither  must  you  often  betake  yourself,  as, 
amid  the  day's  work,  difficulties  and  cares 
and  vexations  and  disappointments  arise. 
Here  must  you  trim  your  lamp.  Here  must 
you  mend  your  net.  Here  must  you  follow 
the  Master's  call,  *'  Come  apart,  and  rest 
awhile."  Here,  too,  must  your  Bible  be 
read,  not  as  your  text-book  but,  as  your 
own  lamp  and  light — rather,  here  must  it 
be  fed  on  as  your  spiritual  food,  for  your 
own  life  and  growth.     Your  ordination  has 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  5 

brought  with  it  no  exemption  from  these 
needs. 

Further,  the  same  counsel  must  be  urged 
in  reference  to  study.  No  pressure  of  parish 
work,  however  urgent,  must  draw  you  al- 
together from  this.  You  will  find  it  very, 
very  hard  to  be  resolute.  It  will  seem  to 
be  your  duty — I  speak  of  the  ceaseless 
claims  of  a  large  parish — to  be  out  early 
and  late.  You  will  be  tempted  to  think 
that  you  are  never  at  your  work  when  you 
are  not  on  circuit  in  your  parish,  or  busy  in 
your  schools,  or,  pen  in  hand,  over  parochial 
accounts  or  reports. 

Hence  it  is  that  too  often  our  young 
deacons  (sometimes,  it  must  be  acknow- 
ledged, under  too  exacting  incumbents) 
plunge  at  once  into  parish  work,  and  give 
themselves  to  it,  as  if  their  books  had  been 
finally  closed  after  their  examination,  or 
were  only  to  be  taken  up  to  ensure  not 
being  ''plucked"  for  priest's  orders.  Hence 
the  incapacity  of  but  too  many  of  our  clergy 
to  deal  with  the  great  questions  of  the  day, 
and  to  be  leaders  of  thought.     Hence  con- 


6  LETTERS   TO  A 

tempt,  on  the  part  of  too  many,  of  Christ's 
great  ordinance  of  preaching. 

Be  sure  then,  in  the  adjustment  of  your 
time,  to  reserve  jealously  a  season  for  read- 
ing and  for  study.  Go  deeper  than  the 
light  religious  literature  of  the  day.  Much 
of  it  may  be  good  milk  and  water.  But 
you  must  live  on  stronger  food.  You  must 
brace  your  mind  and  your  theology  by 
breathing  the  atmosphere  of  our  great 
divines.  There  have  been  giants  in  the 
Church,  in  days  gone  by.  There  are  some 
now.  And  although,  if  you  would  be  fully 
equipped  for  the  ministry  in  such  a  day  as 
this,  you  must  not  be  a  theologian  only,  but 
furnish  your  mind  from  the  more  varied 
stores  of  general  literature,  you  must  give 
your  chief  study  to  those  divines  who  will 
live  when  the  shallow — too  often  muddy — 
streams  at  which  young  clergymen  idly 
drink  now,  will  have  passed  away  and  been 
forgotten.  Don't  shirk  5//)f  books — the  very 
reading  and  digesting  of  which  is  a  gym- 
nasium for  the  mind.  You  can  hardly  need  to 
be  reminded  that  a  great  change  has  taken 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  7 

place,    since   the  beginning   of  the   present 
century,  in  reference  to  the  diffusion  of  reli- 
gious knowledge.  True,  the  religious  know- 
ledge of  our  people  is    not  deep.     But  the 
extension  of  general  education  and  the  vast 
multiplication    of  religious   books — particu- 
larly popular  periodicals — bring  the  preacher 
in  his  pulpit,   and   the  pastor  in  his  inter- 
course, face  to  face  with  a  people  no  longer 
mainly  dependent  upon  his  teaching.     The 
secular   press,    too,  has   taken   the    field  in 
religious   matters,  and  even    in   theological 
discussion.     We  read  *Meaders  "  and  other 
articles  which  (to  speak  of  their  power  only, 
both  of  thought   and   language)    may  well 
make   us   feel   that  the   pulpit  will  lose  its 
legitimate  influence — which  should  be  great 
— if  our  preachers  be  drawn  from  an  illiterate 
or  shallow  clergy. 

You  will  not,  for  a  moment,  suppose  that 
I  am  asking  you  to  substitute  secular  know- 
ledge and  literature,  or  *^  enticing  words  of 
man's  wisdom,"  for  the  simple  preaching  of 
that  gospel  which  is  the  wisdom  and  the 
power  of  God.     But,  as  has  been  well  said, 


8  LETTERS  TO  A 

*'  If  God  has  no  need  of  our  wisdom,  He  has 
still  less  need  of  our  ignorance." 

In  reiterating  the  charge  of  the  apostle, 
**  Give  attendance  to  reading,"  we  desire 
that  the  results  of  all  reading  shall  be  con- 
secrated to  your  Master's  work  and  glory. 
That  every  flower  and  every  gem  should  be 
brought,  as  were  the  gifts  of  the  Magi,  as 
an  offering  to  Him. 

Be  a  student  then,  not  a  reader  only.     The 

fewer  books  you   can    buy,   the  fewer   you 

have  time  to  read,  the  more  important  that 

^  they  be  well  chosen  and  well  mastered. 

"^     *'  Not   to    read    or   study   at    all,"    says 

Ouesnel,  quoted  by  Bridges,  **  is  to  tempt 

God ;  to  do  nothing  but  study  is  to  forget 

the    ministry ;     to    study    only   to   glory   in 

one's  knowledge  is  a  shameful   vanity ;    to 

study   in    search   of    the   means    to    flatter 

sinners,  a  deplorable  prevarication ;  but  to 

store  one's  mind  with  the  knowledge  proper 

to  saints  by  study  and  by  prayer,   and  to 

diffuse  that  knowledge  in  solid  instructions 

and  practical  exhortations — this  is  to  be  a 

prudent,  zealous,  and  laborious  minister." 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  .  9 

Carry  with  you  throughout  your  ministry, 
however  lengthened  it  may  be,  the  habit  of 
daily  renewing  and  increasing  your  stores  of 
matter.  Wise  and  weighty  are  the  words 
of  one  of  the  intellectual  giants  of  the  Irish 
Church — Bishop  O'Brien  : — 

*'  A  man  who  preaches  much,  without 
from  time  to  time  renewing  the  stock  of 
matter  with  which  he  began  his  career,  how- 
ever sound  or  pious  he  may  continue  to  be, 
will  be  almost  sure  ultimately  to  become 
a  very  barren  preacher.  And  I  only  say 
almost,  in  consideration  of  a  few  rare  in- 
stances, in  which  observation  of  life,  and 
intercourse  with  varieties  of  character,  seem 
to  make  an  original  and  peculiar  cast  of 
mind,  independent  in  a  good  measure  of 
reading.  But  these  are  rare  exceptions. 
Generally,  and  all  but  universally,  a  public 
teacher  requires  to  have  his  own  mind  sup- 
plied and  exercised  by  books.  And  to 
derive  full  advantage  from  them,  I  need 
hardly  say,  that  he  must  not  only  read,  but 
think.  Undigested  reading  is  better,  I  am 
sure,   than   none.     I  know  that  a   different 


10  LETTERS   TO  A 

opinion  is  entertained  by  some,  but  this  is 
mine ;  for  there  is  no  one  who  does  not  take 
away  some  matter  from  what  he  reads,  and 
no  mind  can  be  so  inert  as  not  to  be  forced 
to  some  activity,  while  taking  in  new  facts 
or  thoughts.  And,  what  is  not  to  be  put 
out  of  view,  every  mind  becomes  more  un- 
furnished and  more  inert,  when  reading  is 
wholly  given  up." — Bishop  of  Ossory  s  fDr, 
O^ Brien^ sj  Charge  at  his  Primary  Visitation^ 
1842,  p.  23. 

Here  I  close  for  the  present,  hoping  to 
resume  the  subject  in  my  second  letter. 

Yours  faithfully, 

John  C.  Miller. 


Postscript  to  Letter  I. 

In  my  first  letter  I  wrote,  ''  Don't  shirk  stiff 
books." 

I  have  been  asked  to  name  a  few  such 
books,  as  samples  of  the  class  intended. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  n 

I  do  this  with  great  hesitation  and  diffi- 
dence ;  and,  in  doing  it,  to  a  very  limited 
extent,  must  carefully  guard  myself  against 
more  than  general  recommejidation,  as  distin- 
guished from  entire  approval. 

It  would  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  to 
theological  students  and  ministers  one  is  to 
recommend  no  books  but  the  books  of  one 
school,  nor  any  but  such  as  we  think  theo- 
logically sound.  It  is  one  thing  to  recom- 
mend a  book  to  a  young  and  comparatively 
ignorant  enquirer,  another  to  say  that  it  is  a 
book  which  a  clergyman  should  read.  We 
must  assume  that  he  is  now  able  in  some 
measure  *'to  discern  good  and  evil." 

My  younger  brethren  need  no  recommend- 
ation of  the  recognised  treasures  of  theology, 
whether  Patristic,  or  Anglican,  or  Puritan. 

I  am  asked  to  name  a  few  modern  books 
which  will  repay  the  student,  not  only  as 
worth  reading  for  their  subject-matter,  but 
as  affording  a  healthful  discipline  for  his 
mental  powers. 

One  or  two  are  included  which  are 
neither  modern  nor  *'  stiff,"  but  which  are 


12  LETTEES    TO  A 

less  likely  than  others  to  suggest  themselves 
to  the  ordinary  student. 

Works  of  Edward  Polhill,  of  Burwash,  in  Sussei 
(reprinted  from  the  edition  of  1678).  A  mine  of  gold. 
(T.  Ward  and  Co.) 

Witsius  on  the  Economy  of  the  Covenants. 
Neander's  Planting  of  Christianity.     (Bohn's  edition.) 
Neander's  Life  of  Christ.     (Bohn's  edition.) 
Newman's  Arians.     (Rivingtons.) 
Marcus   Dods  on  the  Incarnation.      (William    Allan, 
London.) 

Wilberforce  on  the  Incarnation.  One  of  the  ablest 
works  of  modern  theology.  Emm  a  High-  Chu7xh  stand- 
poifit. 

Kurtz  on  the  vSacrificial  Worship  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. (Clark's  Theological  Library.)  This  throzus  a 
flood  of  light  on  Jewish  Eitiial. 

Lee  on  Inspiration.     (Rivingtons.) 
W.    Goode's    Divine   Rule   of    Faith   and   Practice. 
(Shaw.) 

W.  Goode's  Nature  of  Christ's  Presence  in  the  Euch- 
arist,    (Hatchards.) 

Vogan  on  the  Lord's  Supper.     (J.  H.  &  J.  Parker.) 

Pusey  on  Daniel.     (Parker.) 

East  on  the  proper  Deity  of  the  Son  of  God.     (Tegg.) 

Francis  Goode  on  the  Better  Covenant.     (Hatchards.) 

Hessey's  Bampton  Lectures.     (Murray.) 

Mansel's  Bampton  Lectures.     (Murray.) 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  13 

Liddon's  Bampton  Lectures.     (Rivingtons.) 
Mozley's  Bampton  Lectures.     (Rivingtons.) 
Mozley's  University  Sermons.     (Rivingtons.) 
Mozley's  Primitive  Doctrine  of  Baptismal   Regener- 
ation.    (Murray.) 

Robert  Hall's  Works.     (Bohn.) 

Elliott's  Horae  Apocalypticse.     (Seeley.) 

David   Brown   on   the   Second  Advent.     (Johnstone 

and  Hunter.) 

(   McCosh's  Works. 
Wardlaw's  Christian  Ethics.     (Jackson  and  Walford.) 
Bishop  O'Brien  on  Justification. 
Bishop  O'Brien  on  Prayer.     (Macmillan.) 
Archer  Butler's  Sermons.     (Macmillan.) 
Henry  Melvill's  Sermons.     (Rivingtons.) 
Robertson's  Sermons  and  his  Lectures  on  Epistles  to 

Corinthians.      Unsotmd  in  some  very  hiiportant points^  hut 

often  beautiful  in  thought  and  style. 
Trench's  Synonyms.     (Macmillan.) 
Arthur  John  Maclean  on  the  Unity  of  God's  Moral 

Law.     (George  Bell,  and  Macmillan.)      Very  lucid  and 

able, 

Fairbairn's  Typology.     (Clark,  Edinburgh.) 
Westcott's  Gospel  of  the  Resurrection.     (Rivingtons.) 
Isaac  Taylor's  Works. 
Edward  Garbett's  Bible  and  its  Critics.     (Seeley  and 

Griffiths.) 

Archdeacon  Hardwick's  Christ  and  other  Masters. 
Trench's  Hulsean  Lectures. 


14  LETTERS   70   A 

Wace's  Boyle  Lectures.     (Pickering.) 
Waterland  on  the  Eucharist.     (Clarendon  Press.) 
Pratt's    Scripture    and    Science    not    at    Variance. 
(Hatchards.)     Excellent, 

The  works  of  the  Rev.  Prebendary  Griffith 
(formerly  of  Ram's  Chapel,  Homerton)  are 
full  of  thought,  viz.  :  — 

The  Apostles'  Creed;  The  Spiritual  Life;  The 
Fatherhood  of  God  (Hatchards) ;  Fundamentals ;  Studies 
of  the  Divine  Master  (H.  S.  King  &  Co.). 

A  few  years  ago  it  might  have  been 
superfluous  to  name  Leighton  on  St.  Peter, 
or  to  advise  young  ministers  to  keep  up 
their  acquaintance  with  Butler's  Sermons, 
no  less  than  with  his  Analogy.  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  they  are  comparatively  but  little 
read  now ;  and  the  neglect  is  to  be  greatly 
lamented. 

If  your  means  of  buying  books  are  very 
limited,  the  commentary  of  Dr.  Jamieson, 
Mr.  Fausset,  and  Dr.  D.  Brown  will  be 
found  a  treasury. 

Among  living  expositors  and  commenta- 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  15 

tors  it  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to  name  the 
works  of  Bishop  Ellicott  and  Canon  Light- 
foot.  No  minister  should  be  without  them. 
Archbishop  Trench's  **  Commentary  on  the 
Epistles  to  the  Seven  Churches  of  Asia  "  is 
one  of  his  most  delightful  and  admirable 
publications,  affording  help  that  reaches 
beyond  the  particular  Epistles  on  which  he 
directly  comments.  Perowne  on  the  Psalms, 
and  Spurgeon's  **  Treasury  of  David,"  are 
first-class  works. 

Haldane  on  the  Romans  must  be  recog- 
nised even  by  those  who  may  differ  from  his 
theology  as  a  masterly  book. 

The  commentaries  of  Dr.  Hodge,  of 
America,  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and 
on  I  and  2  Corinthians,  and  Ephesians,  can- 
not be  too  widely  known  to  ministers. 

The  Rev.  W.  G.  Humphry  has  published 
a  very  scholarly  and  useful  little  volume  on 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 


II. 

The  Apportionment  of  the  Minister  s  Time  to  the 
Various  Duties  of  his  Ministry. 

My  dear  Brother, — I  take  up  again  the 
subject  of  my  first  letter.  I  propose  to  deal, 
in  successive  letters,  with  each  department 
of  duty.  At  present,  I  confine  myself  to  the 
general  subject  of  the  relative  and  compa- 
rative importance  of  the  several  and  (in  a 
very  large  parish)  apparently  conflicting 
claims  upon  your  time  and  strength. 

You  have  been  ordained  in  a  branch  of 
Christ's  Church  which  works,  for  the  most 
part,  by  the  parochial  system.  True,  in  our 
cities  and  large  towns  the  congregational 
element  has  become,  and  is  increasingly 
becoming,  prominent,  not  to  say  predomi- 
nant. But,  however  the  parochial  system 
may  have  broken  down,  in  past  years,  from 

2 


1 8  LETTERS   TO  A 

the  inadequate  working  of  it,  and  however 
many  parishes  may  yet  urgently  need  sub- 
division, I  trust  that  the  day  is  far  distant 
when  it  shall  cease  to  be  the  basis  of  our 
Church  work.  Let  us  aim  rather  at  carry- 
-j^ing  it  out  in  its  perfection. 

Your  commission  is,  primarily,  for  a 
parish  with  its  legal  territorial  boundaries. 

You  are  not  simply  a  preacher — indeed, 
as  a  deacon,  you  are  a  preacher  only  by 
the  special  license  of  the  bishop  for  this 
function.  You  are  a  pastor.  Your  min- 
istry involves  the  constant  shepherding  of 
the  flock — visitation  of  the  healthy,  the  sick, 
and  the  afflicted,  whether  the  well-to-do  or 
the  poor — and,  almost  always,  the  Christian 
instruction  of  the  young.  You  are  at  once 
a  witness,  a  herald,  an  ambassador,  an 
under-shepherd,  a  watchman,  a  steward,  a 
builder  and  a  husbandman. 

In  a  manageable  parish  there  will  be 
comparatively  little  difficulty  in  systemati- 
cally apportioning  your  time  to  the  duties 
which  are  involved  in  these  various  aspects 
and  bearings  of  your  ministry. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  19 

It  is  in  our  large  town  parishes,  in  which 
the  population  is  numbered  by  thousands — 
a  large  proportion  of  whom,  perhaps,  are  of 
the  wage-earning  classes  and  of  the  poor — 
that  the  clergyman  feels  the  pressure  of  the 
difficulty  with  which  I  am  dealing.  Here 
are  masses  of  people,  haply  in  a  state  of 
nothingarianism  and  home-heathenism,  to  be 
visited,  with  much  of  poverty  and  sickness 
among  them.  All  your  time  and  strength 
may  be  expended  on  them,  yet  not  suffice. 
Is  every  other  duty  to  be  neglected  ?  Are 
you  to  be  a  house-to-house  visitor  only  ? 

One  thing  I  would  impress  upon  you. 
Whether  your  parish  be  large  or  small, 
manageable  or  comparatively  unmanageable, 
give  a  place  in  your  apportionment  of  your 
time  to  every  branch  of  your  duty.  It  is 
very  improbable  that  every  branch  will  be 
equally  pleasant.  You  have  a  gift  or  a  turn 
for  one,  but  not  for  another.  You  are 
ready  to  give  all  your  time  to  the  elabor- 
ation of  sermons,  but  you  have  no  liking  for 
sick  rooms,  courts  or  cottages,  garrets  or 
cellars.     You  are   fond   of  children  and  of 


20  LETTERS   TO  A 

teaching,  and  would  willingly  spend  your 
mornings  or  afternoons  in  your  school-rooms. 
You  are  of  a  social  turn,  and  would  readily 
degenerate  into  a  mere  morning  caller  and 
a  lounger  in  drawing-rooms  ;  or  you  have 
great  faith  in  secular  or  semi-secular  means 
for  the  social  elevation  of  your  people — • 
clubs,  penny  readings,  concerts,  etc.  One 
has  known  clergymen  who  have  seemed  to 
degenerate  into  mere  school-managers  or 
school-masters ;  and  clergymen  who  have 
seemed  to  look  for  spiritual  influence  over 
the  working  classes  and  the  poor  by  social 
agencies  rather  than  by  the  influence  of 
that  gospel  which  is  '*  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation,"  and  to  which  every  secular 
or  semi-secular  means  is  to  be  subordinate. 

Be  jealous  of  your  own  special  leanings. 
Be  sure  that  they  do  not  unduly  warp  you 
in  the  making  of  your  plans.  As  I  warned 
you  in  my  first  letter,  you  will  be  in  danger 
of  neglecting,  if  not  wholly  omitting,  that 
which  is  distasteful. 

Here  then  is  room  for  faithfulness,  for  self- 
discipline,  for   self-denial,  for   self-mastery. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  21 

You   may,    by   reason  of  the   special   cha- 
racter  of   the  gifts  which    God   has   given 
you,  be  much  stronger   in  one  point  than 
in    another.      You    may    have    your  forte. 
But  you  must  pray  and  labour  in  the  direc- 
tion of  your  weaknesses  and  defects,  so  that 
you  be  absolutely  wanting  in  none  of  the 
qualifications  which  your  ministry  demands. 
And,  in  your  self-searching  at  the  close  of 
every   day   and    every   week,    ask   of  your 
conscience,    as   before   the    heart-searching 
Master,  whether  you  have  honestly,  and  to 
the   best   of   your  judgment,    proportioned 
your  time  to  your  varied  work.     Have  you 
hung  too  long  over  your  sermon  ?  or  have 
you  slurred  it  ?     Will  conscience   reproach 
you  that  the  visit  due  to  such  and  such  a 
sick    one — sick,    perhaps,    unto   death — has 
been  put  off,   or  one  visit  made  instead  of 
two   or  three,  because  the   case  is  not  an 
interesting  one,  or  the  room  is  squalid,  or 
the  air  foul,  or  the  physical  incidents  of  the 
case  painful  and  repulsive  ?     Has  the  time 
been   given    to   a    pleasant   call,    unworthy 
even  of  the  name  of  a  pastor's  visit,  which 


22  LETTERS   TO  A 

should  have  been  given  to  this  dying  one, 
whose  ceaseless  cough,  or  failing  intellect, 
or  deafened  hearing,  or  overwhelming  weak- 
ness, may  render  the  postponed  visit  useless, 
even  if  you  be  not  met  with  the  announce- 
ment, ^*  He  is  gone  "  ? 

It  is  possible,  no  doubt,  to  be  a  slave  to 
rule  and  system.  I  am  not  urging  that  you 
should  buckle  yourself  into  a  strait-waist- 
coat. There  must  be  elasticity  in  your 
rules.  You  must  accommodate  yourself  to 
circumstances.  There  will  be  calls  to  duty 
which  must  be  obeyed  at  once.  But  it  is 
urged  that  a  desultory,  hap-hazard,  planless 
way  of  working,  without  any  mapping  out 
of  your  time,  and  without  any  attempt  to 
adjust  your  work  in  proportion  to  the  rela- 
tive and  comparative  importance  of  your 
varied  duties,  will  keep  you  and  your  work 
in  a  state  of  hurry,  worry,  and  confusion. 
If,  therefore,  you  are  naturally  disorderly, 
let  not  your  natural  failing  be  your  excuse. 
Still  less,  as  we  are  sometimes  tempted  to 
do,  fall  back  upon  the  notion  that  disorder 
is  a  sign  of  genius — that  great  minds  are, 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  23 

not  to  be  fettered  by  rules.  Discipline  your- 
self vigorously  out  of  disorder  into  order. 
Order  not  only  saves  time ;  you  will  do 
more  work,  and  do  it  better,  and  do  it  more 
happily,  and  do  it  with  less  worry. 

I  turn  to  the  New  Testament.  And  in 
the  New  Testament,  first  to  the  example  of 
St.  Paul,  as  I  proceed  to  select  for  the  fore- 
most place  the  foremost  work  of  your  minis- 
try. It  seems  to  me  to  admit  of  no  doubt, 
as  I  ventured  to  urge  in  the  first  lecture 
before  the  Church  Homiletical  Society,  and 
which  is  printed  at  the  end  of  this  volume, 
that,  when  St.  Paul  sets  forth  that  in  which 
he  deemed  that  the  highest  function  of  his 
ministry  consisted,  he  fastens  on  this — the 
proclamation  of  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of 
God  (Eph.  iii.  8). 

**  The  pulpit,"  says  George  Herbert,  "  is 
v^  his  "  (the  parson's)  **  joy  and  thfone." 

Looking  at  preaching  from  the  human 
side,  to  some  extent,  it  has  been  urged,  and 
urged  truly,  by  one  of  the  greatest  of  living 
orators  (I  am  not  quoting  his  words,  but  his 
thoughts),  that  no  man  has  such  an  oppor- 


24  LETTERS   TO  A. 

tunity  for  Influencing  the  minds  and  lives  of 
others,  as  the  man  who  stands  up,  week  by 
week,  with  the  peculiar  and  vast  advantages 
of  a  preacher  in  a  Christian  pulpit.  He 
addresses  a  congregation — frequently  of 
hundreds — sometimes  of  thousands — who 
come  prepared,  for  the  most  part,  to  listen 
respectfully  and  attentively — often  with  the 
deepest  interest  of  which  a  human  mind  and 
heart  are  capable.  From  the  nature  of  your 
position,  they  must  listen  without  opportu- 
nity of  immediate  and  direct  reply.  And 
you  know — for  I  would  fain  suppose  this — 
that  your  theme  is  the  most  awful  which 
can  occupy  their  attention.  You  believe,  or 
you  are  indeed  powerless,  that  this  gospel, 
summed  up  in  *' Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified,"  Is  God's  plan  and  message  for 
the  recovery  of  man  for  both  worlds ;  and 
that  It  is  a  distinct  office  of  God  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  own  and  to  accompany  this  mes- 
sage of  salvation  with  divine  power.  "•  It 
pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preach- 
ing to  save  them  that  beHeve." 

Can    such    opportunities   be    surpassed  ? 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  25 

Shall  such  a  work  as  this  be  subordinate  to 
aught  beside  ?  Shall  sermons  be  carelessly 
put  together  ?  scrambled  together  on  Satur- 
days, without  study,  meditation,  toil,  and 
prayer  ?  For  the  light  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  the  blessing  of  God's  grace  and  power, 
are  not  promised  to  you  in  any  such  sense 
as  to  exempt  you  from  diligent  preparation. 
It  was  not  to  the  ordinary  preacher,  but  to 
disciples  in  prospect  of  very  special  circum- 
stances, that  the  promise  was  given,  which 
forbade  premeditation,  and  assured  them 
that  "  it  should  be  given  them  in  the  same 
hour  what  they  should  speak." 

There  can  hardly  be  any  hesitation  as  to 
the  next  claim  on  the  apportionment  of  your 
time.  I  put  aside  for  the  present  all  refer- 
ence to  your  ordinary  duties  in  church, 
whether  in  public  worship  or  in  what  we 
call  **  surplice  duty,"  because  in  these  (of 
which  I  shall  hope  to  speak  in  a  future  letter) 
you  have  no  option.  So  that  we  put  next 
Visitation,  in  all  its  branches. 

I.  Visitation  of  the  sick;  2.  Visitation  of 
the  afflicted;    3.  Visitation    from   house   to 


26  LETTERS    TO  A 

house ;  4.  Social  visiting.  Let  me  remind 
you  that  all  these,  as  well  as  your  preaching, 
will  be  taken  up  in  detail  in  subsequent 
letters.  We  are  now  adjusting  various 
duties.  As  a  parochial  minister,  never  be 
content  with  being  merely  a  preacher.  This 
word  "merely"  is  used  in  no  disparage- 
ment of  preaching.  But  our  commission 
from  our  Master  and  from  our  Church  is 
wider  and  manifold.  And  as  to  practical 
results,  while  I  do  not  venture  to  say  that 
the  most  diligent  and  loving  visitation  will 
do  away  with  the  necessity  of,  at  least,  toler- 
able preaching ;  of  this  I  am  quite  sure, 
that  average  preaching,  with  diligent  and 
loving  visitation,  will  tell  in  time  upon  most 
parishes,  more  effectually  than  mere  preach- 
ing, however  eloquent  or  popular.  It  will 
tell  more  effectively  for  the  true,  deep,  last- 
ing work  of  the  minister.  And  it  is  in  this 
that  those  who  are  placed  over  our  largest 
parishes,  with  their  populations  of  ten,  fif- 
teen, or  twenty  thousand,  feel  their  grievous 
disadvantage. 

Such  parishes  generally  bring    to    those 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  27 

who  are  at  the  head  of  them  much  ex- 
traneous work,  both  in  and  out  of  their 
parishes,  and  thus  personal  visitation  and 
knowledge  become  simply  impossible  to  any 
one  man.  The  visitation  must  be  divided 
among  the  incumbent  and  his  fellow-helpers. 

You  need  hardly  be  reminded  that  in  visit- 
ation the  sick  and  the  afflicted  must  have 
precedence. 

Add  to  your  visitation  your  Schools,  and 
you  have  the  three  chief  departments  of 
duty  between  which  you  must  allot  your 
time  :  conflicting  duties  sometimes,  in  their 
claims ;  but  not  conflicting  in  their  bearings 
upon  your  great  work,  regarded  as  a  whole. 
They  have  a  combined  influence :  each 
strengthens  the  other  in  many  ways. 
Yours  faithfully,' 

John  C.  Miller. 


III. 

The  Work  of  the  Ministry. 

My     dear     Brother, — '*  Dissatisfaction," 
writes  Richard  Cecil,  *'  accompanies  me  in 
the  study  and  in  the  pulpit.     I  never  made 
a  sermon  with  which  I  felt  satisfied ;  I  never 
preached  a  sermon  with  which  I  felt  satisfied. 
I  have  always  present  to  my  mind  such  a  con- 
ception of  what  MIGHT  be  done,  and  I  some- 
times hear  the  thing  so  done,  that  what  I  do 
falls  very  far  beneath  what  it  seems  to  me 
should   be.     Some   sermons   which    I   have 
heard  have  made  me  sick  of  my  own  for  a 
month  afterwards."* 

Yet  Cecil  was  a  ''  master  in  Israel."  As 
such,  he  had  a  just  estimate  of  the  power 
of  the  pulpit.  His  standard  of  a  good  ser- 
mon was  high. 

*  "  Remains  of  the  Rev.  Richard  Cecil,  M.A."     New  edit., 
1876,  p.  210.    Elliot  Stock,  62,  Paternoster  Row,  E.C.  Price  5s. 


30  LETTERS   TO  A 

For  ourselves,  practically,  our  standard 
should  be  to  give  God  and  our  people  our 
best,  our  very  best,  according  to  the  gifts 
and  opportunities  given  to  us  ;  the  best  we 
can  produce  after  prayer  and  pains. 

Having  inquired  into  the  apportionment 
of  the  minister's  time  to  the  various  duties 
of  his  ministry,  and  assigned  the  first  place 
to  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  I  now  pro- 
ceed to  offer  hints  and  counsels  on  this  de- 
partment of  your  ministerial  duty. 

I.  Pulpit  Work.    II.  Pulpit  Preparation. 

I.  Pulpit  Work.  Why  am  I  going  into 
the  pulpit  ?  Why  should  the  sermon  be 
added  to  the  worship  of  prayer,  praise,  and 
holy  communion  ?  The  Word  of  God  has 
been  read :  what  would  be  lost,  were  there 
no  sermon  ? 

You  are  not  going  into  the  pulpit  to  read 
or  say  something  before  the  people  ;  *  nor  to 
deliver  a  rhetorical  oration ;  nor   to   utter, 

■*  See  Trophy-Room  Lectures  on  Preaching,  No.  IV.,  in 
Clergyman^ s  Magazine  for  December,  1876,  p.  337. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  31 

from  book  or  memory,  a  succession  of  true 
but  pointless  platitudes ;  nor  to  give  a  lec- 
ture on  morals.     You  are  going — 

I.    To  deliver  a  message  fro7n  God. 

To  do  this  you  must  speak — and  speak 
directly  and  earnestly  and  faithfully — to  the 
people.  Earnestness  does  not  mean  rant, 
nor  even  loudness.  It  does  not  mean  scold- 
ing. There  may  be  the  reality  and  the 
manifestation  of  deep,  loving,  anxious  ear- 
nestness, where  there  are  the  tones  and 
gestures  of  a  calm,  grave,  and  penetrating 
solemnity.  I  am  persuaded  that  the  lack  of 
this  earnestness  is  the  fatal  defect  of  very 
much  of  our  preaching.  One  has  listened 
to  many  a  fair  sermon,  bearing  on  it  the 
marks  of  care  and  study.  It  has  had  good 
matter  in  it,  has  been  well  arranged — sensibly 
put;  but  it  has  lacked  directness.  From  first 
to  last,  the  preacher  has  been  speaking  before 
us,  not  to  us.  Forgive  me  for  reiterating 
Mr.  Simeon's  distinction.  Few  elements  in 
preaching  seem  to  me  to  be  more  import- 
ant. You  must  not  give  me  the  idea  of  a 
man  who  has,  in  the  discharge  of  a  duty, 


32  LETTERS   TO  A 

put  together,  with  thought  and  care,  some- 
thing which  sensible  people  may  listen  to, 
for  half  an  hour  or  so,  without  any  great 
strain  on  their  attention.  You  must  show 
me  that  you  feel  you  have  a  commission  and 
a  message,  and  that  you  are  burning  to 
deliver  that  message,  as  that  which  has  an 
urgent  and  a  paramount  claim  on  my  imme- 
diate attention.  You  must  thaw  before  you 
come  into  the  pulpit.  It  is  no  place  for 
icicles.  You  must  speak  earnestly  to  my 
conscience,  to  my  hopes,  my  fears — the 
deep  yearnings  of  my  heart,  so  vague  and 
mysterious  even  to  myself.  You  must  talk 
to  me  of  my  soul,  of  eternal  judgment,  of 
heaven,  of  hell.  You  must  tell  me  of  God 
my  Father,  in  all  the  love  and  pity  of  His 
Fatherhood ;  of  Jesus  my  Saviour,  in  all  the 
adaptation  and  sufficiency  and  freedom  of 
His  salvation.  You  must  remember  that  I 
am  a  sinner,  a  sufferer,  a  sorrower,  a  dying 
man.  I  am  fighting  life's  battle,  and  it  is  a 
hard  one. 

God's  providence   is   often    dark.     From 
the  varied  and  inexhaustible  pharmacopoeia 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  2>Z 

of  God's  Word,  you  must  give  me  the  medi- 
cines, the  anodynes,  the  cordials,  the  stimu- 
lants, which  I  need. 

Alas  !  how  many  sermons  are  preached 
every  Sunday  which  rise,  perhaps,  to  a 
decent  mediocrity  of  ability,  but  are  so  de- 
livered as  to  leave  the  impression  that  the 
preacher  is  not  at  all  concerned  whether  a 
single  soul  be  the  better  for  it  all.  His 
heart  seems  utterly  unpenetrated  by  St. 
Paul's  words,  *^  Thou  shalt  both  save  thyself 
and  them  that  hear  thee."  **Why,"  said 
Sydney  Smith,  "  call  in  the  aid  of  paralysis 
to  piety  ?  Why  this  holoplexia  on  sacred 
occasions  alone  ?  Is  sin  to  be  taken  from 
men,  as  Eve  was  from  Adam,  by  casting 
them  into  a  deep  slumber  ?  And  from  what 
possible  perverseness  of  common  sense  are 
we  all  to  look  like  field  preachers  in  Nova 
Zembla,  holy  lumps  of  ice,  numbed  into 
quiescence  and  stagnation  and  mumbling  ?" 
Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that,  as  God's 
messenger,  you  have  a  message,  not  only 
for  the  mere  formalist,  the  unconverted,  the 
worldling,  and  those  (a  large  number,  alas  ! 

3 


34  LETTERS  TO  A 

of  our  church-goers)  who  are  hardening 
under  the  sound  of  the  Gospel,  but,  also, 
for  Christ's  faithful  soldiers  and  servants, 
for  God's  ''  dear  children." 

No  doubt,  one  of  the  most  embarrassing 
difficulties  of  the  Christian  preacher  in  such 
a  day  and  such  a  country  as  ours  lies  in  the 
promiscuous  character  of  our  Sunday  con- 
gregations. 

To  send  none  away  without  a  *'  word  in  sea- 
son "  is  very  difficult — often,  perhaps,  im- 
possible ;  so  varied,  in  many  respects,  are  the 
classes  and  the  cases  before  us.  But,  while 
I  fully  believe  that,  in  our  Sunday  sermons, 
the  awakening  element  should  be  far  more 
prominent  and  powerful  than  it  is  in  the 
sermons  of  very  many,  we  have  also  to 
warn,  to  counsel,  to  build  up.  Nor  must 
the  *' Barnabas  "  element  be  wanting- — '*  a 
son  of  consolation."  Remember,  you  have 
before  you  those  (perhaps  many)  who  are 
sorrow-stricken,  perplexed,  sorely  tempted. 
Others  (perhaps  not  a  few)  who  can  eat  and 
digest  strong  meat.  They  must  be  led  on 
to  perfection.     They  are  hungering  for  good 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN. 


35 


things.  You  must  not  always  send  them 
empty  away.  It  is  a  high  function  of  the 
ministry  to  comfort  them  that  mourn,  to 
perfect  the  saints,  to  build  up  believers  on 
their  *'most  holy  faith." 

Does  your  message  reach  to  all  this  ?  Is 
it  thus  many-sided  ?  Does  the  Gospel  need 
no  supplement  for  all  these  varied  ends  ? 
One  rule  will  carry  you  through.  Christ 
fully  preached  suffices.  Mark — **  fully." 
Not  partially ;  not  in  one  part  of  His  work, 
in  forgetfulness  of  another.  All  our  Father's 
love  in  Him,  all  the  Spirit's  offices  and  work 
in  Him,  and  all  His  own  offices  and  work. 
Your  message  centres  in  Christ — Christ  is 
your  message.  Let  it  be  the  dominating, 
the  all-pervading,  idea  of  every  sermon,  to 
bring  out  some  point  of  the  revelation  of 
God's  truth  and  love,  His  grace  and  glory 
in  Christ  Jesus.  Never  preach  a  Christless 
sermon.  Bring  Christ  with  you  into  the 
pulpit,  or  do  not  enter  it.  Without  Christ 
you  have  no  message. 

But  your  pulpit  work  includes  another — 
the  most  important  duty.     You  go  into  the 


36  LETTERS   TO  A 

pulpit,  not  only  to  deliver  a  message  from  God, 
but— 

2 .    To  expound  the  Word  of  God. 

Never  let  this  duty  fall  into  a  secondary 
place.  Still  less  let  it  be  altogether  neg- 
lected. It  is  not  necessary  for  this  end 
that  we  should  always  preach  directly  and 
exclusively  an  expository  sermon.  But  it  is 
a  great  thing  gained,  if,  as  the  result  of  a 
sermon,  one  obscure  text  of  Scripture  be 
cleared  up.  This  may  be  done  in  passing, 
and  sometimes  parenthetically,  when  a  diffi- 
cult text  is  quoted  in  confirmation  or  illustra- 
tion of  your  subject.  But  courses  of  exposi- 
tory sermons,  if  not  too  long  continued,  nor 
carried  out  too  much  in  a  spin -text  fashion, 
are  much  valued.  The  ignorance  of  many 
of  our  regular  church-goers  upon  points 
of  doctrine  is,  it  is  to  be  feared,  very 
lamentable.  Many  well-taught  Sunday- 
school  children  would  beat  our  gentlemen 
and  ladies  hollow,  in  a  competitive  examina- 
tion or  public  catechizing.  We  are  very, 
very  far  from  having  a  people  "  mighty  in 
the  Scriptures." 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  37 

If  your  choice  falls  upon  one  of  St.  Paul's 
argumentative  Epistles,  remember  that  one 
main  object — indeed  the  first — should  be 
to  set  out  clearly  his  train  of  thought.  No 
easy  task  at  all  times,  even  for  a  well-read 
and  well-equipped  theologian.  For  example : 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  distinguish 
between  the  full  treatment  of  a  text  in  a 
topical  manner,  and  the  exposition  of  it 
and  its  context.  Show  the  links  of  the 
logic.  Follow  St.  Paul's  rapid  transitions. 
Disentangle  his  parentheses.  Do  not  preach 
a  sermon  on  "  Justification  "  every  time  that 
the  word  occurs.  Explain  it  and  the  term 
**  Righteousness,"  as  fully  as  may  be,  at 
starting.  Refresh  the  memories  of  your 
hearers  with  the  explanation  now  and  then, 
as  you  go  on.  But,  in  such  a  case,  let  con- 
tinuous exposition  be  the  leading  idea  and 
endeavour. 

Cecil  remarks  on  the  difference  between 
the  later  and  earlier  styles  of  preaching — 
the  preaching  in  the  primitive  Church,  the 
preaching  of  the  Puritans,  and  that  of  our 
own    day — '*They  brought   forward  Scrip- 


38  LETTERS   TO  A 

ture;  we  bring  forward  our  own  state- 
ments. They  directed  all  their  observa- 
tions to  throw  light  on  Scripture ;  we  quote 
Scripture  to  throw  light  on  our  observa- 
tions."^ 

A  preacher  may  never  be  more  sure  of 
the  help  and  blessing  of  God  the  Holy 
Ghost  than  when  he  is  studying  and  striving 
to  spread  the  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
Word  of  God. 

I  have  said  that  there  is,  even  among 
our  church-goers,  a  lamentable  lack  of  Bible 
knowledge.  As  preachers,  we  take  too 
much  for  granted.  We  assume  far  too 
much  knowledge.  It  is  safe  to  assume 
much  ignorance,  and  (not  avowedly  and 
offensively,  but  practically)  to  act  upon  the 
assumption. 

Whether  your  lot,  as  a  young  minister, 
be  cast  in  a  town  or  in  a  country  parish, 
you  will  probably  have  as  one  of  your 
earliest  duties  a  schoolroom  or  cottage 
LECTURE.  Seek  with  all  painstaking  to 
make  this  useful  to  yourself,  as  well  as  to 

^  "Remains,"  p.  i8o. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  39 

your  humble  hearers.  You  will  thus  gain 
confidence  and  ease  in  extempore  speak- 
ing. But  more  than  this.  Take  thorough 
pains  with  your  subject.  Although  you 
have  but  a  few  poor  folk — many  of  them 
old  women,  or  a  score  or  two  of  rustics — 
study  your  subject  thoroughly;  get  it  up 
to  the  very  best  of  your  ability.  First,  as 
your  present  duty.  Each  and  every  one  in 
your  scanty  and  humble  gathering  has  a 
soul  to  be  saved  or  lost.  You  have  come 
with  God's  Word,  as  God's  minister.  Be 
faithful  in  little.  Your  Master,  all  worn 
and  wearied,  took  pains  with  one  woman 
at  Jacob's  well.  We  know  what  followed 
His  pains. 

Further,  you  are  laying  up  stores  for 
greater  opportunities  and  greater  work. 
It  is  gain  to  you  to  have  mastered,  so  far 
as  may  be,  a  parable  or  miracle,  or  some 
incident  in  Bible  history.  You  will  be 
ready  to  preach  from  it  readily  and  ripely 
from  your  pulpit. 

Many  a  man  who  has  become,  in  after 
years,    not   only   a   ready    speaker    but,    a 


40  LETTERS   TO  A 

skilful  expositor  of  the  Word  of  God  and  an 
able  preacher,  has  looked  back  upon  the 
schoolroom  or  cottage,  with  its  humble 
benches,  scant  ventilation,  and  glimmering 
tallow  candles,  not  only  with  happy  memo- 
ries of  usefulness  but,  as  an  important 
means  to  himself  personally  of  gaining 
experience  and  acquiring  the  ease  which 
he  now  feels  in  his  pulpit  work. 

Never  yield  to  the  temptation.  **  It's 
only  a  schoolroom  lecture  " — **  Only  a 
cottage  lecture" — *' I  shall  have  no  one 
there  but  a  few  old  women  and  children." 
For  your  own  sake,  not  less,  than  for  their 
sake,  and  for  the  Master's  sake,  do  your 
best.  Never  think  yourself  too  great  a 
man  to  take  pains  with  what  seems  little 
work,  if  it  \i^  your  work  and  God'' s  work. 

In  connection  with  the  exposition  of  God's 
Word,  as  the  most  important  element  in 
your  PULPIT  WORK,  we  must  not  omit 
Variety. 

Week  after  week — it  may  be  for  years — 
you  will  be  called  on  to  address  the  same 
people   on    the   same   great   subjects,    with 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  41 

the  same  great  aims.  And,  not  seldom, 
more  than  once  or  twice  in  the  week. 
There  are  some  of  us  who  have  to  deliver 
to  the  same  people,  or  to  congregations 
in  which  the  majority  is  composed  of  the 
same  individuals,  three  or  four  sermons 
every  week — sometimes  with  aching  heads, 
sometimes  with  aching  hearts.  And  we 
want  sameness  with  variety.  We  must 
give  that  which  is  old,  but  give  it  with 
freshness.  It  should  be  old,  but  not  stale. 
To  this  end  we  must  avail  ourselves  of 
the  rich  Variety  of  the  Scriptures.  The 
variety  of  forms,  I  mean,  under  which 
God's  truth — the  subject  matter  of  our 
pulpit  work — is  revealed.  History,  bio- 
graphy, types,  spiritual  songs,  promises, 
prophecy,  proverbs,  parables,  miracles,  dis- 
courses, letters,  doings,  sufferings.  The 
field  is  wide,  the  garden  diversified,  the 
treasury  inexhaustible.  Without  tying 
yourself  slavishly  to  a  Medo-Persian  rule, 
it  may  be  well  to  preach,  if  not  in  regular 
alternation,  yet  with  some  approach  to 
system,    from    each   and   all   of  the   above 


42  LETTERS   TO  A 

departments  of  Holy  Scripture  In  succes- 
sion. Now  from  its  histories ;  now  from 
a  biography  or  the  briefer  story  of  an  in- 
dividual. This  week  take  your  text  from  a 
parable.  Next  week  from  a  miracle.  Let 
this  sermon  elucidate  and  apply  a  type. 
Let  it  be  followed  by  the  cordial  of  an  ex- 
ceeding great  and  precious  promise.  The 
words  of  the  Great  Teacher,  as  recorded  by 
the  Evangelists,  must  be  frequent  topics. 
But  St.  Paul  and  his  fellow-apostles  must 
help  to  complete  your  pulpit  teaching.  The 
Gospel  may  be  preached  from  the  story  of 
Naaman,  no  less  than  from  the  story  of  the 
cross.  Abel's  altar  and  the  scapegoat 
ritual  teach  the  atonement,  no  less  than  the 
fifty-third  of  Isaiah  and  the  narratives  of 
Calvary.  You  will  find  suggestive  illus- 
trations of  pardon,  justification,  and  sanc- 
tification  in  Zechariah's  vision  of  Joshua 
and  Satan.  Of  the  Psalms,  writes  Hooker, 
*'  The  choice  and  flower  of  all  things  profit- 
able in  other  books  the  Psalms  do  more 
briefly  contain  and  more  movingly  express. 
....     What   is   there  necessary    for  m.en 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  43 

to  know  which  the  Psalms  are  not  able  to 
teach  ?  They  are  to  beginners  an  easy  and 
familiar  introduction,  a  mighty  augment- 
ation of  all  virtue  and  knowledge  in  such 
as  are  entered  before,  a  strong  confirmation 
>*  to  the  most  perfect  among  others."  * 

While  then  we  cannot  deny  that,  under 
very  frequent  calls  to  pulpit  work,  amid 
the  pressure  of  other  duties  in  a  large  parish 
— especially  if  physical  strength  be  not 
great,  and  the  opportunities  of  rest  few  and 
far  between — you  will  sometimes  sorrow  to 
feel  that  pulpit  preparation  comes  to  you  too 
much  as  a  task,  the  variety  of  Scripture — 
not  to  speak  of  the  other  and  ever-accumu- 
lating stores  of  a  man  who  keeps  up  his 
reading — will  be  found  to  be  a  great  help 
both  to  yourself  and  to  your  people.  The 
land  from  Dan  to  Beersheba  will  seldom 
seem  all  barren  to  a  diligent  student,  if  he 
be  also  a  man  of  prayer.  As  has  been  well 
said,  *' If  milk  and  honey"  are  ^*  flowing" 
upon  the  surface,  so  too  "  out  of"  its  ''hills" 
-we  may  "  dig  brass." 

*  Eccles.  Polity,  book  v.,  ch.  xxxvii.,  sec.  2. 


44   LETTERS   70  A    YOUNG    CLERGYMAN. 

In  my  next  letter  I    hope   to   pass  from 
Pulpit  Work  to  Pulpit  Preparation. 

Yours  faithfully, 

John  C.  Miller. 


IV. 

Pulpit  Preparation. 

My     dear     Brother, — We     pass     on    to 
Pulpit  Preparation. 

Begin  on  your  knees.  Let  every  sermon 
be  planned,  thought  out,  finished,  preached, 
followed  up,  in  prayer.  Seek  wisdom  and 
strength  from  God  for  that  which  is  pecu- 
liarly God's  work.  Remember  that  your 
Master  is  the  living  and  exalted  Head  of 
the  Church ;  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  your 
wisdom  and  strength,  is  given  through 
and  by  Him.  You  are  a  witness  to  Christ. 
*' He  shall  testify  of  me,"  is  a  chief  func- 
tion of  '*the  Spirit  of  truth."  Your  aim  is 
to  glorify  Christ.  "He  shall  glorify  me," 
is  your  Lord's  own  declaration  of  the 
Spirit's  work.  Let  no  gifts,  no  study, 
induce    self-confidence    or    neglect   of    this 


46  LETTERS   TO  A 

Divine  Helper.  Seek  first  that  your  own 
heart  may  be  tuned  and  toned  by  Him,  that 
your  sermon  may  not  be  a  task  or  a  merely 
professional  duty  to  be  got  through.  If  not 
on  holy  ground,  you  are  at  holy  work. 
You  are  about  to  handle  God's  Word,  to  set 
forth  God's  truth.  Your  own  spirit  needs 
to  be  elevated  and  hallowed.  You  will 
never  preach  a  sermon  for  which  you  will 
not  have  to  give  account.  Let  every  sermon 
be  prepared  under  the  earnest  desire  and 
prayer  that  it  may  be  a  means  of  blessing 
to  many  souls ;  and  the  preparation  and 
preaching  of  it  a  blessing  to  your  own. 
And,  as  years  roll  on,  strive  to  keep  up 
this  solemnity  of  feeling  in  all  its  freshness 
and  power.  For  there  is  great  danger  lest, 
as  you  get  habituated  to  sermon-writing, 
and  acquire  facility  by  practice,  it  should 
become  a  matter  of  routine  duty,  and  you 
should  cease  to  feel  the  responsibility  and 
privilege  of  your  work.  And  this  danger 
can  only  be  met  by  prayer  and  by  **  the 
communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

But   I  would  fain  hope  that  I  need  not 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  47 

enlarge  upon  this  point,  and  will  proceed  at 
once  with  such  counsels  and  hints  as  an 
elder  brother  may,  in  all  humility,  offer. 

First,  as  to  the  choice  of  Subjects  and  Texts. 

As  a  young  preacher,  at  any  rate,  be  not 
ajnbitioics.  Wait  a  while  before  you  choose 
difficult  subjects  or  texts.  Neither  affect 
eccentricity  by  the  choice  of  fanciful  or  odd 
texts.  Be  simple.  To  say  nothing  of  other 
reasons,  you  will  have  to  preach  to  a  con- 
gregation the  great  majority  of  whom  are 
older  than  yourself;  some  of  them,  let  us 
hope,  advanced  and  ripe  believers.  The 
great  and  leading  truths  of  the  Bible  will 
always  be  acceptable.  But  they  will  not 
think  you  clever,  but  conceited,  if,  as  a 
young  beginner,  you  attempt  very  difficult 
texts,  or  plunge  into  the  deepest  waters. 
Leave  these  to  your  elders,  or  reserve  them 
to  your  own  riper  years.  To  instance  what 
I  mean,  let  a  few  years  pass  over  your  head 
before  you  take  up  Genesis  and  geology, 
election  and  predestination,  and  unfulfilled 
prophecy.  If  ever  you  dogmatize  as  a 
prseterist  or  futurist,  as  a  pre-millenarian  or 


48  LETTERS  TO  A 

a  post-millenarian  (dogmatize  I  hope  you 
never  will),  let  it  not  be,  at  any  rate,  as  a 
young  deacon,  nor  during  the  earlier  years 
of  your  ministry.  If  for  no  other  reason, 
you  will  have  little  weight,  and  many  will 
set  you  down  as  conceited,  pretentious,  and 
presumptuous.  Daedalus,  says  the  Grecian 
myth,  flew  safely  over  the  ^gean  Sea,  on 
his  wings  of  wax.  Young  Icarus  went  too 
near  the  sun,  melted  his  wings,  and  was 
drowned.  Young  Phaethon  found  the  sun's 
horses  too  much  for  him,  and  nearly  set  the 
earth  ablaze. 

You  will  find  it  a  great  advantage  to 
yourself,  as  it  will  be  a  great  advantage  to 
your  people,  to  avail  yourself  of  your  posi- 
tion as  a  minister  of  a  Church  which 
provides  fixed  tables  of  Psalms  and  Lessons, 
and  which  does  not  give  the  Word  of  God 
to  her  congregations  desultorily  and  with- 
out system.  These  will  be  fresh  in  your 
people's  minds.  They  will  have  heard  3^our 
context  but  an  hour  before  you  are  in  your 
pulpit.  You  thus  start  at  a  great  advan- 
tage.    And  often  there  will  have  been  some 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  49 

point  in  the  Scriptures  read  to  them  on 
which  they  will  have  been  desiring  expla- 
nation. 

But,  as  you  need  not  tie  yourself  to  this 
plan,  keep  a  note -book  for  texts  as  they 
strike  you,  in  your  reading. 

To  repeat  advice  given  before,  as  a  rule 
the  text  should  be  chosen  early ;  the  sermon 
written,  not  too  late  for  revision — but  late — 
and,  if  possible,  without  any  considerable 
intervals  in  the  composition.  I  am  not  now 
speaking  of  deep  and  learned  sermons  for  a 
university  pulpit  or  special  occasions,  but 
of  ordinary  parish  sermons.  Forgive  me 
for  repeating  the  wise  counsels  of  Arch- 
deacon Evans,*  quoted  in  my  lecture  before 
the  Homiletlcal  Society — *'  Strike  it  off  at 
a  heat."  Dean  Burgonf  writes,  **  It  is  a 
great  help  to  writing  effectively,  that,  as 
soon  as  a  man  has  made  up  his  mind  how 
he  will  treat  a  subject,  he  should  write  fast 
and  fervently;  from  his  heart  rather  than 
his  head.     I  mean  that  it  is  well  to  write  off 

*  "Bishopric  of  Souls." 

t  "  Burgon  on  the  Pastoral  Office,"  ch.  v.,  p.  188. 

4 


50  LETTERS  TO  A  . 

a  sermon  at  one,  or  at  most  two  sittings. 
Let  a  man  beware  of  freezing  over  repeated 
acts  of  composition.  While  he  is  curiously 
casting  about  for  a  better  phrase,  he  is  for- 
getting the  precise  thing  which  he  wished 
to  express.  While  he  is  pondering,  another 
and  yet  another  view  of  the  subject  unfolds 
itself,  or  some  irrelevant  thought  intrudes, 
and  leads  the  pen  astray.  In  the  end  he 
grows  confused  and  paralyzed,  and  his 
sermon  proves  a  failure.  At  best  it  can 
only  become  an  accurate,  perhaps  a  highly 
intellectual,  composition ;  but  without  ease, 
or  fire,  or  freshness.  The  writer  would  gladly 
exchange  it,  when  he  gets  into  the  pulpit, 
for  the  least  pretentious  sermon  he  ever 
dashed  off  with  a  moistened  eye  and  a 
beating  heart." 

Your  text  chosen,  and  the  original  care- 
fully  studied^  think  it  well  out  before  you 
turn  to  books.  Do  not  write  upon  crutches. 
Let  the  works  of  other  sermon-writers  and 
of  commentators  be  used  rather  to  correct, 
amplify,  and  illustrate  your  own  thoughts — 
not   to   save  you  the   trouble   of  thinking. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN. 


51 


The  affluency  of  help  now  within  reach, 
unless  your  library  be  very  scanty  indeed, 
may  be  abused  to  the  stunting  of  your  own 
powers. 

By  this  advice  I  do  not  mean  for  a 
moment,  or  in  the  slightest  measure,  to 
undervalue  the  Church's  storehouse.  A 
well-chosen  theological  library,  although 
small,  is  as  a  treasury  and  an  armoury  with 
which  God  has  furnished  us,  by  giving  gifts 
to  our  great  thinkers  and  eminent  theo- 
logians. I  mean  only.  Think  and  study  for 
yourself.  God's  help  and  man's  help  do  not 
exempt  you  from  self-help. 

Your  text  once  chosen,  picture  as  vividly 
as  you  can,  in  your  mind's  eye,  your  con- 
gregation— old  and  young,  rich  and  poor, 
educated  and  unlearned.  Write  as  not 
writing  an  abstract  essay,  but  as  one  who 
has  to  talk  naturally  and  earnestly  to  living 
men  and  women.  Nor  must  you  ask  your- 
self, of  your  ordinary  sermons,  Would  this 
look  well  in  print  ?  It  has  been  acknow- 
ledged by  masters  of  oratory,  that  what 
reads  well  is  seldom  half  as   effective  when 


52  LETTERS  TO  A 

spoken ;  you  must  be  content  to  find  that 
what  is  effective  when  spoken  will  not  read  so 
well  in  print,  as  a  literary  composition. 

In  confirmation  of  this,  a  sermon  in 
delivery  admits  of  greater  diffuseness  and 
repetition  than  it  does  in  print.  You  will 
not  suppose  that  I  am  recommending  the 
diftuseness  and  repetition  which  arise  from 
carelessness  or  poverty  of  thought.  But  we 
are  too  apt  to  suppose  that  our  hearers  take 
in  an  argument  or  a  thought  at  once.  The 
expansion  which  is  recommended  is  not 
such  as  will  weary  your  hearers,  but  such  as 
will  help  them,  by  driving  the  argument  or 
thought  more  closely  home.  For,  to  apply 
the  words  of  Aristotle,  your  hearers  are,  for 
the  most  part,  those  ot  ov  hvvavTo.i  Sta  ttoWcjv 
(Tvvopav,  ovhe  Xoyit^eaOai  TToppoiOev  {Rhetoric,  i. 
2).  A  venerable  and  very  able  dignitary  of 
our  Church — one  of  the  thinkers  of  our 
day — told  me  that,  in  a  conversation  which 
he  once  had  with  William  Wilberforce  on 
preaching,  that  great  master  of  persuasive 
eloquence  said  to  him,  **  You  preachers  do 
not  repeat    yourselves    enough.'*     On    this 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  53 

point  let  me  quote  a  passage  from  a  valu- 
able little  volume,   **  Papers  on   Preaching 
and       Public      Speaking,      by     a      Wyke 
hamist "  : — 

**What  would  look  like  repetition  upon 
paper  does  not  sound  like  repetition  when 
spoken  ;  and  repetition,  with  slight  varia- 
tions, is  necessary  for  the  full  understanding 
of  many  things.  To  the  preacher  from 
notes,  we  may  say  what  Dr.  Johnson  said 
to  Boswell,  when  he  handed  him  notes  for 
a  speech  to  an  election  committee  in  the 
House  of  Commons :  *  This,  sir,  you  must 
enlarge  on ;  you  must  not  argue  these  as 
if  you  were  arguing  to  the  schools.  You 
must  say  the  same  thing  over  and  over 
again  in  different  words.  If  you  say  it  but 
once,  they  miss  it  in  a  moment  of  inatten- 
tion.' Fox  advised  Sir  Samuel  Romilly, 
when  about  to  sum  up  the  evidence  in  Lord 
Melville's  trial,  '  not  to  be  afraid  of  repeat- 
ing observations  which  were  material.'  Pitt 
urged  a  similar  defence  for  that  amplifica- 
tion which  was  thought  a  defect  in  his  style. 
*  Every  person,'  he  said,  *  who  addressed  a 


54  LETTERS   TO  A 

public  assembly,  and  was  anxious  to  make 
an  impression  on  particular  points,  must 
either  be  copious  upon  some  points,  or  else 
repeat  them ;  and  copiousness  is  to  be 
preferred  to  repetition.'  Lord  Brougham 
gives  his  testimony  on  the  same  side :  *  The 
orator  often  feels  that  he  could  add  strength 
to  his  composition  by  compression,  but  his 
hearers  would  then  be  unable  to  keep 
pace  with  him,  and  he  is  compelled  to  sacri- 
fice conciseness  to  clearness.  The  expansion , 
which  is  a  merit  at  the  moment  of  delivery, 
is  turned  into  a  defect  when  a  speech  is 
printed.  What  before  was  irnpressive  seems 
now  to  be  verbose,  and  the  effect  is  dimin- 
ished in  much  the  same  proportion  as  ori- 
ginally it  was  increased.  It  was  for  some 
such  reason  that  Fox  asserted  that  if  a 
speech  read  well  it  was  a  bad  speech.  No 
Athenian  audience  could  have  followed 
Demosthenes  in  the  condensed  form  in 
which  his  speeches  are  printed.' — Quarterly 
Review,  No.  206.  Fuller  reminds  us  that, 
to  the  uneducated  listener,  the  intellectual 
food  should  not  be  presented  in  too  solid  a 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  55 

form,  saying,  in  his  quaint  way,  *  Without 
a  fair  proportion  of  chaff,  a  horse  is  apt  to 
bolt  his  oats.'  "  * 

The  expansion  and  repetition  here  in- 
tended are  a  very  different  thing  from  that 
which  is  described  by  Bassanio,  in  Shak- 
speare's  '*  Merchant  of  Venice" — **  Gratiano 
speaks  an  infinite  deal  of  nothing  more  than 
any  man  in  all  Venice.  His  reasons  are  as 
two  grains  of  wheat  hid  in  two  bushels  of 
chaff:  you  shall  seek  all  day  ere  you  find 
them ;  and  when  you  have  found  them,  they 
are  not  worth  the  search"  (Act  i.,  scene  i). 
It  is  to  be  feared  that  there  are  pulpit 
Gratianos  among  our  preachers,  of  whose 
sermons  it  may  be  said,  as  Rowland  Hill 
said  of  some  men's  speeches,  they  have  **  a 
river  of  words  with  only  a  spoonful  of 
thoughts." 

I  have  said  that,  at  your  study  table,  you 
must,  in  imagination,  set  your  congregation 
vividly  before  you.  You  will  very  soon  have 
gained  some  idea  of  their  intellectual  power 
and  culture  (or  lack  of  both)  by  pastoral 
*  Pp.  44,  45- 


56  LETTERS   TO  A 

visitation  and  intercourse.  An  excellent  vil- 
lage clergyman,  a  mathematical  first-class 
man,  and  now  a  learned  Professor  of  Divinity, 
whom  I  know  well,  was  purposing  to  preach 
about  the  brasen  serpent.  He  had  the  sense 
and  forethought,  not  always  possessed  by 
fellows  of  colleges  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
to  try  beforehand  the  soil  upon  which,  on 
the  following  Sunday,  he  was  going  to  sow 
his  seed,  and  he  found  that  his  villagers 
would  not  understand  him  if  he  preached 
about  a  serpent.  A  snake  was  intelligi- 
ble. And  about  the  brasen  snake  he 
preached. 

And  if  it  be  your  early  lot  to  preach  to 
such,  you  have  a  work  calling  for  your  best 
powers.  It  is  a  problem  which  puzzles 
senior  wranglers  and  first-class  men.  They 
have  grappled  with  the  differential  calculus, 
with  dynamics  and  hydrostatics,  with  Plato 
and  Aristotle,  with  tough  or  corrupt  passages 
in  -^schylus  and  Pindar,  but  find  a  new  and 
a  harder  task  in  preaching  to  farm  servants, 
field  labourers,  and  ploughboys. 

Whatever  be  the  character  of  your  con- 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  57 

gregation,  preach  to  them  as  having  hearts 
as  well  as  heads, 

I  say  this  because  there  is  a  class  of  men, 
both  preachers  and  hearers,  of  the  cold- 
blooded order,  who  either  feel  or  affect  a 
supercilious  contempt  for  all  appeals  to  the 
emotions.  Mere  sensational  rant  and  gush 
are  of  course  to  be  eschewed.  But  there  is 
more  heart-power  than  brain-power  for  you  to 
work  on  in  your  congregation.  There  are 
hidden  and  deep  well-springs  of  feeling  in 
every  man,  woman,  and  child.  God,  in  the 
Bible,  appeals  often  and  largely  to  the  emo- 
tional part  of  our  nature.  He  addresses, 
not  our  intellect  only,  nor  our  conscience 
only,  but,  our  hearts.  It  may  be  said  that  it 
is  an  easy  achievement  for  the  preacher  to 
draw  forth  women's  tears.  I  am  not  urging 
that  you  should  become  a  mere  pocket- 
handkerchief  preacher,  nor  that  you  should 
plume  yourself  complacently  on  being  a 
master  of  eloquence  because  you  can  make 
men  or  women  cry.  But  pathos  has  its 
legitimate  and  important  place  in  pulpit 
oratory.     The  advocate  who  is   addressing 


58  LETTERS   TO  A 

a  jury  must  begin  with  his  facts  and  his 
law  ;  but  he  will  be  but  a  poor  pleader,  if  he 
does  not  avail  himself  of  the  fact  that  those 
twelve  men  in  the  jury  box  have  hearts.  I 
say  nothing  of  the  candidate  seeking  the 
suffrages  of  a  constituency,  because  elec- 
tioneering speeches  have  more  or  less  of 
clap-trap  in  them.  But  we  may  take  the 
case  of  the  statesman  in  Parliament,  when 
speaking  on  some  burning  question.  He 
will  not  fail,  if  it  be  a  question  which  at  all 
admits  of  it,  to  remember  that  he  must  not 
only  convince  the  understanding,  but  move 
the  feelings  of  the  House.  "  Depend  upon 
it,''  said  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  his  late  address 
to  the  boys  at  Marlborough  College,  ''  it 
would  be  a  great  deal  better  for  us  who  are 
men  if  we  were  not  so  much  ashamed  of 
emotion  as  we  generally  are.  A  very  small 
proportion  of  the  errors  committed  in  the 
world,  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  errors 
in  public  life,  are  due  to  the  mere  excess 
of  emotion.  It  is  to  other  more  dangerous 
enemies  than  these  that  we  owe  the  mischief 
with  which  the  world  abounds.*' 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  59 

Let  preachers  remember  and  act  on  Mr. 
Gladstone's  words.  We  don't  want  crying 
men.  But  we  want  men  who  can  cry — and 
there  are  few  who  cannot.  Warm  up  then 
in  the  pulpit.  Try  to  warm  up  others.  Put 
heart  as  well  as  brains  into  your  sermon. 
You  are  not  working  out  a  mathematical 
problem,  nor  weighing  the  force  of  a  Greek 
particle  or  tense,  but  speaking  to  dying  men 
about  the  loss  or  salvation  of  their  souls. 
Whitfield  and  Wesley  would  never  have 
riveted  and  awakened  slumbering  masses,  if 
they  had  preached  to  the  intellect  only. 
The  Rev.  J.  Angell  James,  in  his  admirable 
work  on  **  An  Earnest  Ministry  the  Want  of 
the  Times" — a  book  which  I  warmly  re- 
commend to  you — tells  an  anecdote  of  a 
*'  pleader  who,  on  being  applied  to  by  a 
client  to  undertake  her  cause,  upon  perceiv- 
ing the  coldness  of  her  manner  in  stating  her 
case,  told  the  applicant  he  did  not  credit  her 
tale."  Stung  by  this  reflection  upon  her 
veracity,  and  this  disbelief  of  her  grievance, 
she  rose  into  strong  emotion,  and  affirmed 
with    expressive    vehemence    the    truth    of 


6o  LETTERS   TO  A 

her  story.  **  Now,"  said  he,  *'  I  believe 
you.'** 

**  With  regard  to  the  Exordium  of  a 
sermon,  it  is  advisable  not  to  lose  much  time 
over  it.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  arrest  the  at- 
tention at  first  by  a  short  and  pithy  sentence 
or  two.  Throw  thought,  pith,  and  strength 
into  the  opening  remarks.  It  is  a  great 
mistake  to  begin  a  discourse  weakly  or  care- 
lessly."t  ^'Let  your  onset,"  writes  TAbbe 
MuUois,  *' be  bold  and  vigorous. "J  But  a 
high-flown  exordumi  is  a  mistake.  It  cannot 
be  sustained  throughout  the  sermon.  The 
homely  saying  will  almost  certainly  be  ful- 
filled :  **  He  went  up  like  a  rocket,  and  came 
down  like  a  stick."  You  excite  your  hearers 
too  soon.     Be  content  with  arresting  them. 

You  will  of  course  desire,  not  only  to  give 
your  sermon  throughout  a  scriptural  cast 
and  tone  but,  in  the  spirit  of  your  Church, 
to  base  everything  on  Holy  Scripture,  and  to 


•^  p.  152.     Third  Edition. 

t  See  Lecture  on  Preaching  at  the  end  of  this  vol.,  p.  245. 
%  "  The  Clergy  and  the  Pulpit  in  their  Relations  to  the 
People,"  by  M.  I'Abbe  Isidore  Mullois,  ch.  iii.,  p.  loi. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  6i 

prove  everything  which  needs  proof  by  Holy 
Scripture.  But  this  may  be  carried  to  ex- 
cess. Avoid  mere  Concordance  preaching. 
By  this  is  meant  needless  multiplication  of 
proofs  by  over-copious  quotations.  No  need 
to  cite  half  a  dozen  texts  to  prove  a  point, 
unless  they  prove  it  in  different  aspects  and 
bearings.  Strictly,  one  text  is  enough,  if 
clearly  to  your  point.  People  grow  weary 
of  a  mere  string  of  texts.  And  it  gives  the 
impression  that  you  are  taking  refuge  in 
quotation  to  eke  out  your  scanty  thoughts. 

Long  sentences  are  a  great  mistake  :  with 
the  illiterate,  a  fatal  one.  They  are  soon 
lost  in  the  mazes  of  your  syntax,  however 
readily  you  may  parse  them.  But,  although 
short  sentences  should  be  the  rule,  a  longer 
one  may  now  and  then  be  brought  in.  An 
uninterrupted  flow  of  very  short  sentences 
becomes  wearisome.  But  the  longer  must 
not  be  very  long.  Again  to  quote  Aris- 
totle : — *'  Aet  Se  koI  to.  KCjXa,  kol  raq  irepLoSov^y 
IxrJTe    iL€iovpov<^    eivai,   ixrJTe    ixaKpd<^.      To   /xeV 

yap      flLKpOV      TTpOCTTTTaieiV     TToXXctfCtS      TTOieL      TOV 

d  KpoaTijv'    avdyKT)  ydo  orav  en  opixcov   inl   to 


62  LETTERS   TO  A 

TToppoi  Koi  TO  yiirpov  ov  e^ec  Iv  iavTcj  opov, 
avricnracrOfi  Travo-ayiivov,  oiov  TTpocnTTaUiv 
yiyvecrOai  8ta  Tr]v  avTiKpovcTiv.  To,  Se  (xaKpa 
aTTokeiirecrOaL  Trotet.   .   .   ." — Rhetoric,  iii.  9. 

There  is  often  great  grandeur  in  the  roll 
and  sweep  of  the  lengthened  reasonings  or 
majestic  perorations  of  Chalmers,  Edward 
Irving,  Melvill,  and  Archer  Butler,  but  they 
would  not  be  followed  to  the  end  by  hearers 
of  uncultivated  minds.  Avoid  ra^ntiing. 
Aim  at  unity  and  cohesion  of  thought. 
Have  an  aim.  Keep  it  always  and  de- 
finitely before  you.  I  quote  one  of  Rowland 
Hill's  oddities,  not  for  its  decorum  but,  for 
its  lesson.  He  said  once  of  a  subject,  "  It 
will  naturally  divide  itself  into  three  parts. 
First,  we  shall  go  into  the  subject ;  secondly, 
we  shall  go  round  about  the  subject ;  thirdly, 
we  shall  go  away  from  the  subject  alto- 
gether." My  advice  is,  take  his  first 
division  only.  Don't  go  round  about  the 
subject ;  still  less  away  from  the  subject  al- 
together. Into  it  your  hearers  may  follow 
you  ;  they  will  decline  to  follow  you  round 
about,  or  away  fro?n  it  altogether.     At  any 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  (>i 

rate,  they  will  complain  that  you  led  them 
out  of  it.* 

Whether  or  no  you  are  purposing  to  make 
Extempore  Preaching  your  rule,  I  entirely 
concur  in  the  advice  that,  with  very  rare 
exceptions,  it  will  be  wise  to  keep  up,  for  a 
considerable  period,  the  habit  of  written 
composition.  Should  you  have  a  gift  of 
ready  thought  and  fluent  utterance,  your 
case  is  a  very  rare  one  If  you  will  not  be 
the  better  for  the  practice  of  writing.  For 
bear  In  mind  that,  while  ready  thought  and 
fluent  utterance  are  most  valuable  gifts,  they 
have  obviously  their  corresponding  danger, 
and  that  a  very  serious  one.  You  may,  un- 
consciously to  yourself,  mistake  fluency  of 
speech  for  solid  thought,  mere  words  for 
matter.  Writing  will  help  to  clearness  and 
compactness  of  thought.  You  will  detect  on 
paper  froth  and  emptiness,  which  will  escape 
your  notice  when  speaking.  Excitement — 
the  feeling  that  you  dare  not  stop,  but  must 

*  See  some  very  lively  and  interesting  papers  on  "  Rowland 
Hill,"  by  Rev.  Edwin  Paxton  Hood,  in  the  Sunday  at  Home, 
March,  1877. 


64  LETTERS   TO   A 

go  on  saying  something,  however  little  you 
may  have  to  say — the  satisfaction  that  you 
are  not  brought  to  a  stop  for  lack  of  words 
— may  blind  you  to  what  your  hearers  are 
feeling  painfully,  that  you  are  doing  little, 
if  anything,  else  than  talking.  If  experi- 
ence and  honest  self-criticism  tell  you  that 
you  have  not  a  gift  for  extempore  speaking, 
that  no  cultivation  or  practice  will  put  you 
at  your  ease,  and  make  you  a  ready  speaker, 
recognise  the  fact  that  this  gift  is  denied 
you,  and  that  your  usefulness  does  not  lie 
in  that  direction.  I  do  not  mean  by  this 
that  you  should  not  give  yourself  a  fair  trial. 
You  may  try  your  powers  on  small  occasions, 
and  before  listeners  with  whom  you  are 
comparatively  at  ease.  But  if,  after  fair 
and  full  trial,  you  feel  that  you  are  not 
gaining  courage,  ease,  and  fluency,  be  not 
disheartened.  Many  a  man  has  been  an 
able  and  useful  minister — some  have  been 
great  in  their  pulpits  too — who  have  not 
been  extempore  preachers.  But,  while  I 
say  this,  I  must  not  conceal  my  conviction 
that  there   is  no   congregation  with   whom 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  65 

good  extempore  preaching  is  not  the  more 
effective.  Years  ago  there  was  a  foolish 
prejudice  against  it.  But  let  it  be  seen  that 
extempore  preaching  does  not  mean  thought- 
less and  unstudied  preaching,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  the  results  of  thoughtful  study, 
so  completely  mastered  as  that  you  can 
give  them  appropriate,  facile,  and  forcible 
utterance ;  and  there  can  be  no  question  of 
its  being  the  more  excellent  way,  espe- 
cially with  country-folk  and  with  the  poor. 
Mr.  Gladstone  tells  us  that  Dr.  Dollinger 
once  said  to  him,  "  Depend  upon  it,  if  the 
Church  of  England  is  to  make  way,  and  be 
a  thoroughly  National  Church,  (he  did  not 
speak  of  competition  with  Nonconformists 
at  all,  but  in  its  relation  to  the  great  bulk 
and  body  of  the  people,)  they  must  give 
up  the  practice  of  preaching  from  written 
sermons.'  "  But,  adds  Mr.  Gladstone,  *'  It 
is  only  out  of  the  full  heart,  and  likewise 
out  of  the  well- furnished  mind,  that  good 
extemporaneous  preaching  can  proceed."* 

*  The  Times,  March  23rd,   \Z']']^  Report  of  Conference  on 
''Pew  and  Pulpit:'' 

5 


66  LETTERS   TO  A 

A  man  must  be  a  very  good  writer  of 
sermons,  and  must  deliver  his  sermon  with 
great  ease,  to  hold  the  attention  of  such 
hearers  by  a  read  sermon.  To  be  tied  to  the 
book,  never  able  to  look  at  your  people, 
not  to  move  arm  nor  hand — for  natural 
action  is  very  difficult  with  a  written 
sermon,  and  generally  means  a  formal  re- 
petition of  one  or  two  mechanical  move- 
ments— this  is  fatal  with  the  poor,  except 
in  very  rare  cases.  These  rare  cases  are 
when  the  preacher  has  so  mastered  his 
sermon  as  to  be  nearly  independent  of  his 
manuscript,  and  when  he  has  a  very  earnest, 
pointed  manner  of  delivery. 

Two  such  exceptions  I  can  remember. 
They  were  very  different  preachers,  in  almost 
every  respect — Henry  Blunt  and  Henry 
Melvill.  The  former,  as  his  published 
volumes  show,  was  a  very  model  of  sim- 
plicity, both  in  matter  and  manner.  He 
seldom  grappled  with  deep  theological  diffi- 
culties ;  his  sermons  had  no  subtle  logic  in 
them,  no  lofty  flights  of  rhetoric.  I  never 
saw    him    lift   an   arm — seldom,   if  ever,   a 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  .      67 

hand — when  preaching.  But  my  memory 
retains  him  as  one  of  the  most  impressive 
preachers  I  ever  heard.  He  spoke  from  the 
heart  to  the  heart,  with  a  calm,  grave, 
penetrating  earnestness.  I  felt,  if  I  may 
so  say,  as  if  he  had  my  conscience  in  his 
hand.  Henry  Melvill  consecrated  the 
powers  of  a  second  wrangler  and  a  first 
Smith's  prizeman  mainly  to  the  preaching 
of  Christ's  gospel.  He  wrote  his  sermons. 
They  will  not  die.  Not  seldom  he  grappled 
with  difficult  subjects  and  difficult  texts. 
You  may  follow  for  yourself  the  closeness 
of  his  logic,  the  thrilling  power  of  his 
rhetoric,  and  the  keen  home-thrusts  of  his 
appeals  to  the  conscience  and  the  heart. 
He  used  no  vehement  action.  But  he  was 
on  fire  with  his  message,  and  the  effect  can 
never  be  forgotten,  after  but  once  hearing. 
I  adduce  these  two  examples  of  preachers 
— very  different  from  each  other,  but  each 
great  in  his  own  gifts  and  usefulness — to 
show  that  there  are  rare  cases  in  which  the 
written  sermon  may  equal  or  surpass  the 
extempore  sermon  in  power  and  effect. 


68  LETTERS  TO  A 

I  leave  this  well-worn  topic,  which,  how- 
ever, could  not  be  left  altogether  untouched, 
as  one  on  which  you  must  carefully  and 
conscientiously  decide  for  yourself,  after 
trial,  and  upon  the  honest  advice  of  those 
who  have  heard  you  make  the  trial.  Some 
men  will  never  succeed.  Many  will  fail  at 
first,  and  afterwards  attain.  Aim  at  it  as 
worth  painstaking  trial.  But  if  you  feel 
constrained  to  give  it  up,  remember  for 
your  comfort  that  your  efficiency  and  use- 
fulness by  no  means  turn  on  this  only ; 
for,  as  I  have  said  already,  many  men  have 
been  able  ministers,  and  even  great — great 
in  usefulness — as  preachers  without  it. 

I  cannot  better  close  this  my  fourth  letter 
than  in  the  words  of  one  of  the  foremost 
of  modern  preachers,  Robert  Hall — words 
which  of  themselves  attest  his  eloquence 
as  containing  a  sublime  accommodation  of 
one  of  the  sublimest  of  the  visions  of  the 
Apocalypse :  **  Are  you  desirous  of  fixing 
the  attention  of  your  hearers  strongly  on 
their  everlasting  concerns  ?  No  peculiar 
refinement  of  thought,  no  subtlety  of  reason- 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  69 

ing",  much  less  the  pompous  exaggerations 
of  secular  eloquence,  are  wanted  for  the 
purpose :  you  have  only  to  imbibe  deeply 
the  mind  of  Christ,  to  let  His  doctrine 
inspire  your  heart,  and  your  situation^  in 
comparison  to  other  speakers^  will  resemble  that 
of  the  angel  of  the  Apocalypse,  who  was  seen 
standing  in  the  sun.  Draw  your  instructions 
immediately  from  the  Bible ;  the  more 
immediately  they  are  derived  from  that 
source,  and  the  less  they  are  tinctured  with 
human  distinctions  and  refinements,  the 
more  salutary,  and  the  more  efficacious. 
Let  them  be  taken  fresh  from  the  spring."* 
Yours  faithfully, 

John  C.  Miller. 

*  "  Discourse  on  the  Discouragements  and  Supports  of 
the  Christian  Minister."  Robert  Hall's  works.  Bohn's 
edition.     Vol.  ii.,  p.  1 86. 


V. 

The  Work  of  the  Ministry.. 

I.  Pulpit  Preparation  {continued), 

II.  In  the  Pulpit, 

My  Dear  Brother, — I  have  but  little  to 
add  with  reference  to  the  general  work  of 
Pulpit  Preparation.  A  word,  however, 
about  Illustration  and  Anecdote.  The  former, 
if  clear  and  apposite,  will  be  telling  with 
all  classes  of  hearers,  the  educated  as  well 
as  the  uneducated.  But  your  illustrations 
must  be  well  chosen,  and  not  strained. 
Neither  must  they  be  used  too  profusely. 
Neither  must  you  mistake  them  for  argu- 
ments. You  will  never  excel  greatly  in 
illustration,  unless  you  have  a  special  gift 
for  it.  But  much  may  be  done  by  an  ob- 
servant eye  and  varied  reading.  You  will 
thus  draw  upon  natural  objects  and  pheno- 


72  LETTERS  TO  A 

mena  in  the  physical  world,  and  upon  your 
literary  stores,  and  strengthen  any  natural 
turn  you  may  have  for  discerning  resem- 
blances and  analogies.  It  was  a  homely, 
but  telling  illustration,  when  a  preacher 
said,  **  When  we  pass  a  shop  on  a  week- 
day, and  see  the  shutters  up,  we  suppose 
that  there  is  a  dead  body  there ;  when  we 
pass  a  shop  on  Sunday,  and  see  the  shutters 
down,  we  knov^r  that  there  is  a  dead  soul 
there."  Julius  Hare  has  a  striking  illus- 
tration when,  speaking  of  the  truth  being 
heard  heedlessly  without  faith,  and  there- 
fore without  impression,  he  compares  it  to 
*' the  wind  through  an  archway."  Such 
illustrations  are  seldom  forgotten.  As  to 
Anecdote,  I  cannot  go  so  far  as  the  Wyke- 
hamist, whose  **  Papers  on  Preaching"  are 
well  worth  reading,  when  he  says,  **  In 
every  sermon  give  us  at  least  a  good 
anecdote."  If  it  were  desirable,  I  do  not 
believe  it  possible.  No  man  who  preaches 
very  often  can  command  such  a  store  of 
opposite  and  well-authenticated  anecdotes 
as  to  produce  one  for  every  sermon.     He 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  73 

will  be  tempted  to  drag  in  such  as  are  un- 
suitable for  the  pulpit,  or  such  as  do  not 
sufficiently  illustrate  his  subject. 

You  will  observe  that  I  have  used  the 
term  '*  well-authenticated  ;  "  for  you  must 
not  leave  room  for  the  suspicion  that  you 
have  picked  up  a  good  story,  and,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  tellers  of  good  stories,  em- 
bellished it,  without  authenticating  it.  I 
am  afraid  that  in  our  platform  speaking  we 
are  not  sufficiently  careful  on  this  point. 
Often  at  a  dinner-table  **  a  good  story " 
may  be  laughed  at,  but  there  is  a  very 
considerable  residuum  of  incredulity  when 
the  laugh  is  over.  '*  Made  to  tell "  whisper 
the  hearers.  Let  your  anecdotes  be  trust- 
worthy, and  introduce  them  in  such  a  way 
as  to  remove  from  the  minds  of  your 
hearers  all  doubt  as  to  their  truth.  But 
at  best,  while  a  good  anecdote  gives  liveli- 
ness, and  helps  to  point  the  truth  which  it 
illustrates,  excess  of  anecdote  introduces 
somewhat  of  the  sensational  element,  and 
your  hearers  will  look  for  them  as  a  matter 
of  course.     You  may  be  much  more  free  in 


74  LETTERS   TO  A 

the  use  of  anecdote  with  the  poor  and  with 
rustic  congregations. 

As  it  is  well  to  begin  your  sermon  with 
pith,  point,  and  power,  so  it  is  well  to  end  it 
in  like  manner ;  sometimes  with  a  longer 
peroration,  in  which  your  hearers  see  that 
you  are  coming  to  a  close,  and  are  carried 
along  with  you,  as  you  sum  up  the  main 
points  of  your  sermon,  and  concentrate 
them,  in  their  personal  and  practical  bear- 
ings, upon  their  consciences  and  hearts. 
But  sometimes,  and  especially  with  those 
who  are  less  able  to  follow  long  sentences, 
it  is  well  to  end  with  a  short,  weighty,  and 
even  startling  sentence.  For  example,  one 
who  was  no  mere  popular  preacher  in  his 
day,  but  solid  and  sterling — the  late  John 
Hambleton,  of  Islington — ends  a  sermon  on 
the  Sabbath  with  the  startling  and  sug- 
gestive question,  *'  Where  shall  the  Sabbath- 
breaker  spend  his  eteriiity  V  It  was  his  last 
arrow,  and  a  sharp  one. 

In  passing  from  the  general  work  of 
Pulpit  Preparation,  I  avail  myself  of 
words  reported  in  the  Times  of  this  day,  as 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  75 

uttered  by  Mr.  Gladstone  yesterday,  on  this 
subject.*  **  One  word,"  he  says,  *' upon  a 
question  which  must  be  familiar  to  all  who 
are  conversant  with  this  great  function,  the 
question  of  preparation ;  and  here  we  come 
upon  ground  that  is  common  to  secular  and 
to  divine  oratory.  This  we  are  all  agreed 
on,  that  there  cannot  be  too  much  prepar- 
ation, if  it  be  of  the  right  kind.  No  doubt 
it  is  the  preparation  of  matter ;  it  is  the 
accumulation  and  thorough  digestion  of 
knowledge  ;  it  is  the  forgetfulness  of  per- 
sonal and  selfish  motives ;  it  is  the  careful 
consideration  of  method;  it  is  that  a  man 
shall  make  himself  as  a  man  suited  to  speak 
to  men,  rather  than  that  he  should  make 
himself  as  a  machine  ready  to  deliver  to 
man  preconceived  words." 

I  pass  now  to  one  or  two  specialties.  The 
case  of  Domestic  Servants  has  long  ap- 
peared to  me  to  deserve  far  greater  and 
more  special  attention  from  us  than,  for  the 
most  part,  it  receives.     Just  now  I  confine 

^  March  23rd,  1877.     Report  of  Conference  on  "  Pew  and 
Pulpit." 


76  LETTERS   TO  A 

myself  to  one  point  of  this  important  subject 
— our  relation  to  it  as  preachers. 

No  doubt,  in  not  a  few  families  servants 
have  many  religious  privileges.  At  least, 
they  hear  the  Word  of  God  read  at  family 
prayer,  and  are  called  on  to  join  in  the 
worship  of  God.  In  some  cases  a  Christian 
master  and  mistress  so  order  their  household 
that  each  servant  in  turn  has  the  advantage 
of  morning  service,  and  not  afternoon  or 
evening  service  only.  But  the  cases  are 
very  numerous  in  which  servants  have  no 
other  religious  privilege  on  Sunday  than 
afternoon  service,  all  the  year  round.  And 
to  this  they  come  very  hurriedly,  as  either 
the  family  luncheon  or  dinner,  and  their 
own  dinner,  have  followed  upon  the  service 
of  the  morning.  Surely,  as  they  form  so 
very  large  and  so  very  important  a  part  of 
our  flock,  they  should  have  their  special 
share  of  direct  attention.  For  it  is  also  to 
be  borne  in  mind  that,  notwithstanding  the 
educational  advancement  of  the  times,  they 
are  often  painfully  ignorant.  At  best,  they 
have  had  the  brief  and  broken  instruction  of 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  77 

a  short  school  life.  Pastorally,  they  are  the 
hardest  of  all  classes  to  get  at.  Our  diffi- 
culties seem  all  but  insurmountable,  when 
the  requirements  of  duty,  the  mournful 
indifference  of  masters  and  mistresses,  and 
the  indifference  of  many  servants  them- 
selves, are  taken  into  account.  And  even 
in  our  churches,  our  afternoon  and  evening 
congregations  are  often  so  mixed  that  we 
cannot  be  always  preaching  to  servants 
only.  Nor  is  it  necessary ;  for  very  much 
of  what  we  have  to  say  in  the  pulpit  applies 
to  them  in  common  with  others. 

Bat  there  are  many  cases  in  our  large 
towns  in  which  there  are  three  services.  If 
I  mistake  not,  in  the  majority  of  these  the 
afternoon  congregation  consists  mainly  of 
servants;  and  the  duty  of  preaching  at 
this  service  falls  on  one  of  the  assistant 
curates.  He  has  been  present  at  the  morn- 
ing service,  when  perhaps  the  church  has 
been  full,  the  service  lively  and  stirring, 
and,  may  be,  the  sermon  powerful ;  while 
the  congregation  has  consisted  of  the  chief 
parishioners.     He  returns,  after  the  whole- 


^8  LETTERS  TO  A 

some  and  spiritually  bracing  excitement  of 
such  a  service,  to  the  same  church,  after  an 
interval  of  less  than  three  hours,  and  in 
many  cases  finds  a  comparatively  sparse 
congregation,  consisting  almost  exclusively 
of  servants.  Such  cases,  although  not  the 
rule,  are  not  rare.  The  temptation  to  in- 
difference and  sluggishness  is  great,  both 
in  the  prayer  desk  and  in  the  pulpit.  The 
morning  service  and  sermon  deserve  all  his 
strength.  But  anything  will  do  for  servants  ! 
Nay,  my  Brother.  I  have  long  been 
strongly  convinced  that  if  younger  brethren, 
in  the  early  days  of  their  ministry,  when 
placed  in  the  position  which  I  have  de- 
scribed, would  lay  themselves  out  for  servants, 
they  might  do  a  much-needed,  a  great,  and 
blessed  work ;  not  always  by  preaching 
special  sermons  to  servants  as  such;  not  by 
avowedly  singling  them  out  as  a  class,  but 
by  throwing  themselves  heartily  and  earn- 
estly into  this  service,  and  by  adapting  their 
sermons  to  their  case  and  capacities.  To 
preach  specially  to  servants,  as  such,  is  not  a 
work  for  which,  as  a  rule,  young  clergymen 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  79 

— certainly  not  bachelors  in  lodgings — are 
peculiarly  fitted,  unless  they  have  had  pre- 
vious opportunities  of  observation  and  ex- 
perience in  their  old  home-life. 

But  what  I  would  urge  is  this, — put  away 
from  you  the  wicked  thought,  '*  They  are 
only  servants — anything  will  do  for  them." 
Remember,  their  souls  are  as  precious  as 
the  souls  of  their  masters  and  mistresses  in 
hall  and  mansion.  Death,  judgment,  and 
eternity  are  as  awful  and  as  pressing  realities 
to  housekeeper  and  butler,  lady's-maid  and 
nurse,  cook  and  housemaid,  valet  and 
coachman,  footman  and  groom,  and  to  the 
humble  wench  from  the  scullery,  as  to  the 
influential  congregations  for  whom  we  put 
forth  all  our  strength.  Remember,  too,  and 
realize,  that  in  not  a  few  cases  nearly  all 
the  spiritual  instruction  which  these  sheep  of 
your  flock  receive  is  from  you.  The  dreari- 
ness of  many  an  afternoon  service,  and  the 
sleepiness  of  many  an  afternoon  congre- 
gation, lie  to  a  large  extent  at  the  clergy- 
man's door.  I  know  you  are  at  a  great 
disadvantage.     The   afternoon   is   a   sleepy 


8o  LETTERS   TO  A 

time  of  day  to  most  of  us,  especially  if  we 
hurry  from  a  meal  to  church.  But  there 
your  congregation  is ;  and  if  there  be 
special  difficulties,  you  must  nerve  yourself 
to  meet  them,  and  as  far  as  may  be  to  over- 
come them.  There  is  room  for  great  im- 
provement in  our  afternoon  services.  They 
are  often  bald,  cold,  sleepy  affairs.  If  you 
are  so  situated  as  to  be  able  to  make  the 
experiment,  try  whether  a  devout,  warm, 
simple  service,  with  suitable,  stirring,  loving 
preaching,  will  not  draw  to  your  church 
devout  worshippers  of  the  servant  class,  and 
keep  them  awake,  and  win  the  servants  of 
men  to  be  the  servants  of  God. 

Of  course,  where  the  congregation  con- 
sists largely  of  servants,  occasional  special 
sermons,  pointedly  adapted  to  their  case, 
are  most  desirable.  I  know  a  clergyman 
who  valued  as  one  of  the  best  testimonies 
to  his  pulpit  ministry  the  remark  of  a  ser- 
vant, overheard  by  a  friend,  after  a  sermon 
specially  addressed  to  servants :  **  One 
would  think  he  had  been  a  servant  him- 
self!" Too  often  it  is  with  servants,  spec- 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  8i 

ially  rustics,  as  with  Tennyson's  *'  Northern 
Farmer  Old  Style '\— 

*'  An'  'eerd  un  a  bummin'  awaay  loike  a  buzzard  clock 

ower  my  'ead, 
An'  I  never  knawed  whot  a  mean'd,  but  I  thowt  a  'ad 

summut  to  saay, 
An'  I  thowt  a  said  whot  a  owt  to  'a  said  an'  I  coom'd 

awaay." 

Servants  have  their  peculiar  trials,  dangers, 
and  besetting-  sins,  and  some  unsound 
principles,  or  at  any  rate  practices,  in  their 
code  of  morals.  One  of  the  most  startling 
effects  I  ever  saw  produced  by  any  pulpit 
utterance  was  when  a  preacher,  addressing 
a  large  congregation  of  servants,  alluded  in 
plain,  homely,  language  (calling  a  spade  a 
spade)  to  the  notion  which  many  servants 
have  that  filching  from  the  tea-caddy  is  no 
sin  :  *'  Whatever  you  call  yourself,''  said 
the  preacher,  *'God  calls  you  a  thief y 
The  words  sent  an  electric  shock  through 
the  congregation. 

Be  not  afraid  of  being  too  homely,  of 
descending  too  minutely  and  familiarly  into 
details.     The  example  of  St.  Paul  is  before 

6 


82  LETTERS   TO  A 

you.  He  introduces  one  of  his  most  com- 
prehensive and  condensed  statements  of 
gospel  truth,  as  you  will  remember,  by  bid- 
ding Timothy  **  exhort  servants  to  be  obe- 
dient unto  their  own  masters,  and  to  please 
them  well  in  all  things,  not  answering  again, 
not  purloining,  but  showing  all  good  fidel- 
ity;  "  and  then  sets  to  us  preachers  an 
example  in  more  than  one  respect ;  for  he 
goes  on  to  lay  down  the  grand  motive,  **  that 
they  may  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  our 
Saviour  in  all  things,"  etc. ;  thus  showing 
us  that  the  homeliest  duties  of  the  homeliest 
folk  are  to  be  urged  on  the  highest  and 
holiest  motives  ;  and  showing  us,  too,  that 
he  who,  when  building  up  Ephesian  and 
Colossian  saints,  could  handle  the  noblest 
themes,  and  rise,  as  in  the  close  of  the  eighth 
chapter  to  the  Romans,  to  the  highest  flight 
of  glowing  eloquence,  in  setting  forth  the 
saint's  standing  and  privileges  in  Christ 
Jesus,  did  not  think  it  beneath  Titus  or 
beneath  himself  to  tell  a  servant  that  his 
duty  as  a  Christian  forbad  him  to  pilfer  or 
to  give  a  saucy  answer. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAA.  ^^ 

I  have  a  shrewd  suspicion  that  there  is 
room  for  plain  speaking  to  some  of  the 
housekeepers,  butlers,  grooms,  and  cooks  in 
London  and  elsewhere.  The  golden  rule 
applied  to  their  dealings  with  the  time, 
property,  and  characters  of  their  master  and 
mistress  would  work  out  some  startling 
results  in  the  ethics  of  our  servants,  and 
**  flutter  the  Volsclans,"  in  the  kitchen  and 
servants'  hall.  To  help  you  in  the  art  of 
speaking  **  in  a  language  understanded  by 
such  classes,"  town  and  country  servants, 
or  a  rustic  congregation,  so  that  you  may 
not  fly  over  their  heads,  you  will  find  the 
sermons  of  Augustus  Hare  very  useful. 
You  will  see  that  it  is  possible  for  a  man  of 
high  intellect,  ability,  and  refinement  to  be 
plain  spoken  without  being  coarse. 

Another  specialty  on  which  I  would  speak 
briefly — Preaching  to  Children.  Happily, 
within  the  last  few  years.  Children's  Ser- 
vices have  been  multiplied.  Apart  from 
these,  I  would  strongly  recommend  that,  in 
your  ordinary  sermons,  you  should  point  a 
few  words  at  the  children  in  your  congre- 


84  LETTERS   TO  A 

gatlon,  whenever  the  subject  allows  it.  We 
are  too  apt  to  overlook  them.  Very  much 
of  what  we  say  is  necessarily  above  them. 
They  thus  fall  into  the  habit  of  thinking  that 
the  sermon  is  not  for  them.  But  if  we  watch 
for  our  opportunity,  and  they  see  that,  at 
any  point  in  our  sermon,  we  can  turn  to 
them  with  a  few  simple,  fatherly  words,  de- 
pend upon  it  these  will  tell  upon  the  mind, 
and  be  treasured  in  the  memory  of  many  a 
little  one,  and  the  children  will  gradually 
fall  into  a  habit  of  listening,  because  there 
may  be  some  word  for  them. 

But  it  is  of  Preaching  to  Children  that 
I  now  speak  more  particularly. 

First,  do  not  look  upon  it  as  an  easy  thing 
which  requires  neither  preparation  nor  pains. 
To  preach  suitably  and  effectively  to  chil- 
dren is  far  more  difficult  than  to  preach 
suitably  and  effectively  to  adults.  Experto 
crede.  '  Here  your  powers  of  illustration  may 
have  free  play.  Now  you  may  be  more 
liberal  with  your  anecdotes.  But  here,  too, 
there  may  be  excess.  True,  you  must  gain 
and   hold   their  attention.       You    must   try 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  85 

(success  is  hard,  but  you  must  try)  that 
every  eye  from  every  little  face  may  be 
fixed  on  you,  and  that  not  a  child  may  fall 
off  into  a  doze,  or  find  escape  from  your 
prosiness  in  playing  and  making-  his 
neighbours  his  playfellows.  But  it  is  not 
wholesome  for  children  to  look  in  a  sermon 
for  illustrations  and  anecdotes  only.  The 
sermon  must  not  become  an  amusement. 
There  is  great  danger  here  to  the  preacher. 
We  are  all  in  God's  house — at  any  rate, 
even  in  the  schoolhouse,  we  are  gathered 
together  for  God's  worship.  Gravity, 
solemnity,  must  be  our  prevailing  spirit. 
Our  illustrations  must  not  be  ludicrous,, 
our  stories  must  not  be  funny.  These 
cautions  are  not  uncalled-for. 

We  have  an  inexhaustible  storehouse  in 
the  Bible.  It  is  very  full  of  narrative, 
history,  and  biography,  with  their  lessons 
of  example  and  warning.  Remember  that 
children  do  not  take  in  abstract  ideas. 
Preach  to  them  in  the  concrete.  Be 
graphic.  Be  incisive.  You  will  want  to 
ground  them  in  doctrine,  not  only  to  give 


86  LETTERS   TO  A 

a  few  moral  precepts.  The  doctrines  which, 
as  theologians,  we  designate  as  Adoption, 
Regeneration,  Repentance,  Conversion,  Ab- 
solution, Justification,  Sanctification,  Glori- 
fication, may  be  all  taught  graphically,  and 
in  the  concrete,  from  Bible  narratives,  spe- 
cially from  the  miracles  and  parables,  and 
sometimes,  too,  from  a  striking  type.  For 
example,  you  must  be  a  very  poor  teacher  of 
children  indeed,  if  you  cannot  use  the  story 
of  Naaman  as  illustrating  the  disease  of  sin 
— the  simplicity  and  efficacy  of  the  gospel 
remedy — the  action  of  faith — the  pride  of 
man's  natural  heart.  The  sins  of  selfishness, 
lying,  disobedience  to  parents,  covetousness, 
bad  temper,  envy,  jealousy,  revenge,  etc., 
may  all  be  taught  from  Bible  narratives. 

Whatever  may  be  said  about  long  sermons 
to  others,  they  must  be  a  mistake  with  chil- 
dren.    You  have  to  fill  a  very  small  vessel. 

I  do  not  in  this  letter  enter  upon  Public 
Catechizing,  properly  so  called.  But  it  is 
an  admirable  plan  to  blend  the  catechetical 
element  with  your  sermons ;  that  is,  to  follow 
the  plan   which    is  found  so  efficacious   by 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  87 

our  missionaries  abroad,  with  their  adult 
native  converts — to  stop  every  now  and 
then,  and  put  a  question,  either  to  draw 
out  from  the  children  what  you  were  going 
to  say,  or  to  make  sure  that  you  have  put 
what  you  said  into  them,  by  drawing  it  out 
^them.  It  adds  greatly  to  the  life  of  the 
sermon,  by  keeping  them  on  the  watch  for 
a  question  which  may  come  at  any  moment. 
II.  I  would  now  go  with  you  into  the 
Pulpit. 

"  The  thing  that  mounts  the  rostrum  with  a  skip." 

Be  this  far  from  you  and  me !  Be  self 
forgotten;  forgotten  man's  criticism;  for- 
gotten the  fear  of  the  learned  or  great 
or  influential  persons  who  may  be  present. 
You  will  richly  deserve  the  embarrassment 
and  mortification  which  you  will  feel,  if,  as 
you  espy  unexpectedly  some  such  in  the 
congregation — haply  an  eminent  preacher — 
you  at  once  say  to  yourself,  **  If  I  had  known 
he  was  to  be  present,  I  would  have  taken 
more  pains  to  preach  a  better  sermon/* 
Speak  with  the  courage,  not    incompatible 


88  LETTERS  TO  A 

with  the  deepest  humility,  of  Christ's  am- 
bassador. Fear  not  the  face  of  man.  As 
you  go  up  the  pulpit  stairs,  go  in  the  spirit 
of  one  who  has  not  forgotten,  **  This  may 
be  my  last  sermon  ;  then  my  account."  Or 
there  is  one,  or  more  than  one,  in  church, 
to  whom  it  is  his  last  sermon.  Keep  your 
Master  and  your  account  before  your  eyes. 
God  is  among  your  hearers. 

Coldness  of  manner,  like  heaviness  of 
matter,  is  mortal  sin  in  a  preacher.  But, 
as  I  have  already  said,  earnestness  does  not 
mean  rant  or  scolding.  It  must  be,  not  the 
harsh,  repulsive,  unseemly  earnestness  of  a 
man  who  delights  in  fierce  denunciation  but, 
the  grave,  winning  earnestness  of  a  man 
whose  heart  and  whose  sermons  have  caught 
the  loving  spirit  of  the  gospel.  A  hearer 
once  expressed  his  disgust  at  a  preacher 
who  was  wont  to  indulge  in  unfeeling  and 
fierce  denunciation,  in  these  strong  terms, 
**I  feel  as  if  he  would  gloat  over  my 
damnation."  Doubtless  it  was  but  the  tone 
and  manner  of  the  preacher.  But  the  effect 
was  sad.     "  He  that  winneth  souls  is  wise." 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  89 

No  doubt  In  the  present  day  there  is  a 
dangerous  tendency  to  keep  back  the  threat- 
enings  of  the  Bible — not  to  mention  "  hell 
to  ears  polite  " — a  tendency  arising  in  some 
quarters,  it  is  to  be  feared,  from  unbelief  of 
the  awful  truths  themselves.  To  this  you 
must  not  yield.  Damnation,  hell,  perdition 
of  the  ungodly,  are  parts  of  your  message. 
But  I  have  now  to  do  with  your  spirit  and 
manner  in  the  pulpit.  Draw  rather  than 
drive.  It  has  been  very  strikingly  but  truly 
said  that  in  very  many  places  of  the  Bible 
God  seems  as  one  on  His  knees  entreat-  i^ 
ing  us  to  be  reconciled.  Think  of  St.  Paul 
as  he  wrote  of  "the  enemies  of  the  cross 
of  Christ,  even  weeping."  Remember  the 
Redeemer's  tears  over  Jerusalem. 

A  word  or  two  about  Action.  On  this 
one  must  speak  with  discrimination.  It  is 
hopeless  for  some  men  to  attempt  it.  It  is 
not  in  accordance  with  their  temperament. 
And  although  it  may  be  said  that  suitable, 
moderate,  and  effective  action  may  be  in 
measure  attained  by  practice,  I  confess  that 
I  shrink  from  the  idea  of  learning  and  prac- 


90  LETTERS   TO  A 

tising  it  artificially  for  the  pulpit,  as  if  a  man 
had  chosen  the  bar  or  the  stage  as  his  pro- 
fession.    It    will   be  said  by  some  that  as 
action  is   almost  essential  for  effective  ora- 
tory,  it  is,   not  only  lawful,  but  a  duty  to 
cultivate  it,  as  we  cultivate  other  gifts,  or 
attempt  by  art  to  supply  other  natural  de- 
ficiencies.     But  without  speaking  dogmati- 
cally,   I    must,    in    counselling    a   younger 
brother,    say   that    preaching   is,    from   the 
nature  of  a  preacher's  office  and  of  his  sub- 
ject-matter, so  peculiar  a  class  of  oratory, 
that  I  shrink  from  introducing  artificial  ele- 
ments, and  would  rather  that  you  should  be 
actionless  in  the  pulpit,  than  be  tempted  to 
bring  into  it  the  attitude   '*  practised  at   a 
glass."      At   the   same    time,  suitable  and 
moderate   action  is   very  effective ;  and   as 
I  have  elsewhere  ventured  to  say,  the  want 
of  it  is   a  very   serious   defect   in    English 
preaching.     The  best  advice  I  can  give  you 
is.  If  you  have  a  tendency  to  it,  do  not  repress 
it  further  than  to  keep  it  from  degenerating 
into  extravagant  and  grotesque  gesticulations. 
I  close  this  letter  by  quoting  the  admira- 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  91 

ble  remarks  which  appeared  in  the  Times,  in 
a  leading  article  having  reference  to  the 
conference  on  **  The  Pew  and  the  Pulpit," 
to  which  I  have  already  referred.  The  pas- 
sage applies  both  to  Pulpit  Preparation 
and  to  the  Preacher  in  the  Pulpit: — 

**  The  object  of  any  but  the  most  per- 
functory preacher  must  always  be  to  drive 
something  home  to  his  audience,  to  pro- 
duce in  them  a  conviction  of  some  kind  or 
another.  This  conviction  may  be  simply 
one  as  to  the  cleverness  or  eloquence  of  the 
preacher  himself.  Unworthy  as  this  object 
is  in  any  speaker,  and  especially  out  of 
place  and  mischievous  as  it  is  in  a  sermon, 
yet  it  may  be  produced  by  a  sermon  just  as 
readily  as  by  any  method ;  and  if  the  trick 
is  well  performed,  it  is  just  as  likely  to 
escape  detection  there  as  elsewhere.  The 
best  preaching,  however,  is  as  far  as  possi- 
ble removed  from  this.  Not  only  does  the 
best  preacher  forget  himself,  but  he  makes 
his  audience  forget  him  too.  The  word 
spoken  is  everything  to  them.  They  are 
too  fixed  on  that  to  have  a  thought  to  spare 


92     LETTERS  TO  A    YOUNG  CLERGYMAN. 

for  the  instrument  by  which  it  reaches  them. 
There  is  room,  and  indeed  need,  for  the 
broadest  and  fullest  preparation,  and  the 
most  careful  artistic  treatment,  but  there 
must  be  no  troublesome  sense  of  the  pre- 
sence of  these  adjuncts.  They  must  not 
overlay  the  discourse,  and,  as  far  as  can  be, 
neither  preacher  nor  hearer  should  be  aware 
of  them.  The  hearer  who  has  had  no 
special  training  as  a  judge  of  eloquence  will 
go  home  filled  with  the  subject,  delighted, 
or  awed,  or  convinced.  He  will  carry  the 
flavour  of  the  discourse  with  him,  and  will 
mark  his  sense  of  its  exquisiteness  by  dwell- 
ing on  its  memory,  and  by  returning  again 
and  again  to  the  rich  treat.  Yet  probably 
the  very  last  thought  that  would  occur  to 
him,  the  very  last  expression  that  would 
rise  to  his  lips,  would  be.  What  a  splendid 
preacher  Mr.  So-and-so  is  !  "  * 

Yours  faithfully, 

John  C.   Miller. 

*  The  Times,  March  24th,  1877. 


VI. 

The  Theology  of  our  Sermons. 

My  dear  Brother, — We  live  in  days  In 
which  there  is  a  cry  iox  practical  preaching. 
If  we  are  to  interpret  this  cry  as  the  expres- 
sion of  a  desire  that  we  should  bring  our 
preaching  to  bear  on  the  details  of  daily  life, 
domestic,  social,  and  commercial — on  reli- 
gion at  home,  in  daily  intercourse,  and  in 
business — the  demand  is  a  just  one.  And 
we  can  set  ourselves  to  meet  it  in  the  full 
conviction  that  the  doctrines,  precepts,  and 
examples  of  the  Bible  enable  us  fully  to  do 
so.  The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  eminently 
adapted  for  our  daily  life.  This  is  patent 
in  the  teaching  both  of  the  Great  Master 
and  of  His  apostles.  Proof  by  quotation  is 
needless.  It  abounds  from  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  down  to  the  last  of  the  epistles. 


94  LETTERS   TO  A 

In  this,  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter,  St.  James, 
St.  John,  and  St.  Jude  are  at  one,  as  they 
are  in  their  doctrinal  teachings.  They 
come  down  to  the  minutest  details,  to  the 
government  of  the  tongue,  to  the  saucy 
answer  and  the  petty  theft  of  a  servant. 

But  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  cry  to  which 
I  have  alluded  has,  in  too  many  cases,  an- 
other meaning.  It  is  the  utterance  of  dis- 
like to  dogmatic  teaching.  It  is  a  protest 
against  distinctive  truth.  In  a  word,  against 
Theology.  It  means  that  belief  is  of  small 
or  no  moment,  and  thus  ignores  the  fact 
that  our  practice  must  spring  from  our 
motives,  and  that  these  motives  must  be 
furnished  by  the  great  truths  of  the  Gospel, 
not  indeed  as  merely  embodied  in  creeds  or 
articles,  or  received  with  a  mere  historical 
faith  but,  as  embraced  with  the  heart,  and 
exercising  in  the  heart,  and  therefore  in  the 
life,  their  enlightening,  emancipating,  eleva- 
ting, and  purifying  power.  Too  many — 
some,  it  is  to  be  feared,  among  the 
clergy — say  with  Pope,  in  his  well-known 
couplet — 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.    ,  95 

"  For  modes  of  faith  let  graceless  zealots  fight ; 
His  can't  be  wrong  whose  life  is  in  the  right." 
Essay  on  Man :  Epistle  iii..  lines  305-6. 

I  select  a  few  points  only  which  appear  to 
me  to  deserve  greater  prominence  and  dis- 
tinctiveness in  much  of  the  preaching  of  the 
present  day. 

First,  Repentance.  Is  this,  ^>^  its  details, 
sufficiently  insisted  on  ?  It  was  the  first 
summons  uttered  by  the  Forerunner  and  by 
Jesus  Christ  Himself.  And  when  St.  Paul 
recapitulated  to  the  Epheslan  elders  the 
main  points  of  his  two  years'  teaching  at 
Ephesus,  his  retrospect  is  this  :  '*  Testifying 
both  to  the  Jews,  and  also  to  the  Greeks, 
repentance  towards  God,  and  faith  toward 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."*  He  left  them  as 
a  Church  capable  of  appreciating  and  feed- 
ing upon  the  advanced  and  sublime  teach- 
ings of  the  epistle  subsequently  addressed 
to  them.  But  he  had  qualified  them  for 
this  by  the  fundamental  truth,  not  oi  faith 
only  but,  of  repentaiice.  In  nothing  that  is 
here   urged   is  there  the  slightest  intention 

*  Acts  XX.  21. 


96  LETTERS  TO  A 

to  disparage  the  urgent  earnestness  with 
which  many  preachers  press  upon  men  the 
duty  and  the  blessedness  of  at  once  accept- 
ing God's  message  of  mercy  and  eternal 
life  in  His  Son.  Not  for  one  moment  is  it 
intended  to  make  of  repentance  a  Saviour 
or  a  half- Saviour ;  nor  to  imply  that  God 
has  prescribed  a  certain  term  of  delay  or 
a  certain  measure  of  tears  to  qualify  the 
sinner  for  the  acceptance  of  His  free  and 
full  salvation  in  Christ  Jesms.  But  in  the 
urgency  with  which,  especially  in  mission 
and  revival  services,  men  are  called  on, 
then  and  there,  to  accept  a  present  pardon 
and  to  come  at  once  to  Christ,  is  there  not 
too  often  an  ignoring  of  conviction  of  sin, 
of  contrition,  of  confession  (I  need  not,  I 
hope,  guard  myself  in  using  the  term),  of 
subsequent  amendment,  as  indicative  of  a 
change  of  heart  and  mind,  which  alone  can 
attest,  by  the  fruits  of  holiness,  virtue,  and 
good  works,  the  reality  and  value  of  the 
emotions  excited  ?  Is  there  not  a  tendency 
to  rest  almost,  if  not  altogether,  upon  present 
emotion  and  sensation,  without  setting  forth 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  97 

the  heinous  character  of  sin,  and  the  pro- 
minence given  in  Holy  Scripture  to  deliver- 
ance from  the  mastery,  as  well  as  the  guilt 
of  sin,  as  a  no  less  needed  and  a  no  less 
privileged  blessing  ?  Well  do  I  remember 
that,  in  the  early  days  of  my  ministry,  an 
aged  and  ripe  Christian  man,  who  listened 
Sunday  after  Sunday  to  a  highly  gifted  and 
faithful  preacher,  said  to  me,  **  We  don't 
hear  enough  about  repentance."  I  hope  the 
remark  has  been  useful  to  me  from  that 
day  to  this.  And,  if  I  may,  in  a  letter  such 
as  this,  refer  to  myself,  without  danger  of 
being  charged  with  egotistical  allusion,  I 
may  add  that  I  had,  not  very  long  since,  an 
opportunity  of  learning  that  this  deprecia- 
tion of  the  importance  of  repentance  is  an 
error  into  which  some  excellent  Christian 
men  are  falling.  It  fell  to  me,  during  a 
course  of  Home  Mission  Services,  to  address 
a  large  gathering  of  the  rougher  order  of 
our  people — men  who  seldom,  if  ever, 
entered  a  church.  The  closing  part  of  the 
address  consisted  of  a  plain  (I  hope  earnest 
and  loving)   invitation  to   them   to  accept, 

7 


,98  LETTERS  TO  A 

without  further  delay,  the  mercy  of  God  in 
Christ — a  present  pardon.     I  tried,  heart  and 
soul,  to  preach  the  gospel  as  the  good  news 
of  God.     But  the  former  part  of  the  address 
was  an  endeavour  to  bring  home  conviction 
of  sin — the  sins  of  blasphemy,  drunkenness, 
lewdness,  wife-beating,  neglect  of  children, 
improvidence,  etc.     An  excellent  lay-friend 
called  on  me  a  few  days  afterwards,  and  ex- 
pressed his  satisfaction  with  all  the  latter  part 
of  the   address,    but   regretted   that   I   had 
said   so    much    about   their   sins !      It   had 
seemed  to  me  that  it  was  a  legitimate  use  of 
the  law  to  prepare  for  the  gospel,  and  that, 
if  I  wanted  them   to  go  to  the  physician,  I 
must  convince  them  of  the  reality  and  dead- 
liness  of  their  disease. 

And  when  I  read  the  blessings  pronounced 
upon  those  who  mourn  for  sin ;  when  I 
listen  to  the  stricken  David,  as  he  declares 
from  the  depths  of  a  heart  which  the  Spirit 
of  God,  bringing  home  the  rebuke  of  Nathan, 
has  broken — *'  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a 
broken  spirit :  a  broken  and  a  contrite  heart, 
O  God,  Thou  wilt  not  despise  ;  "  when  I  mark 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN, 


99 


the  teaching  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians, 
in  the  seventh  chapter  of  his  second  epistle 
(vers.  lo,  ii);  when  Messiah  Himself,  speak- 
ing by  His  prophet,  sets  forth  as  a  main 
feature  of  His  mission,  that  He  is  sent  *'to 
bind  up  the  broken-hearted,"  I  can  come  to 
no  other  conclusion  than  that,  if  I  would 
preach  scripturally,  I  must  preach  convic- 
tion, contrition,  confession,  and  the  fruits  of 
repentance ;  and  that,  however  great  my 
earnestness  in  urging  men  to  do  *'  the  work 
of  God,  by  believing  on  Him  whom  He 
hath  sent,"*  I  must  not  so  preach  as  to  send 
men  per  saltum  over  stages  of  experience  to 
which  such  frequent  prominence  is  given  in 
God's  Word. 

Not  for  a  moment  would  I  deny  that 
there  may  be  and  have  been  exceptional 
cases  in  which  the  work  of  grace  has  been 
very  rapid,  and  even  sudden.  But  I  must 
confess  to  a  great  and  grave  distrust  of 
emotional  and  sensational  experience,  under 
the  high  forcing  of  hotbed  processes,  where 
there  has  been  no  experience  of  deep  self- 

*  John  vi.  29. 


loo  LETTERS   TO  A 

abasement  for  sin,  and  where,  however 
great  his  joy,  the  sinner  does  not  come  to 
the  cross — I  say  not  with  the  price^  but  with 
"  the  sacrifice  of  a  broken  and  contrite 
heart."  Let  me  therefore  urge  you  to  utter 
often  the  summons,  **  Repent  ye,  and 
believe  the  gospel !  ' '  and  often  to  go  in 
detail  into  the  subject  of  repentance,  and 
often  to  use  the  law  as  the  instrument  of 
conviction,  and  so  as  the  instrument  of 
bringing  them  to  Christ. 

II.  Justification. — Observe,  not  pardon 
only.  Surely  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose 
and  to  teach  that  pardon  is  co-extensive 
with  jusTiFiCATFON ;  that,  in  fact,  they  are 
synonymous.  If  we  turn  to  the  teaching 
of  the  Homilies,  upon  no  point  are  they 
clearer  or  more  express.  They  set  forth 
our  need,  not  only  of  pardon,  but  of  a 
POSITIVE  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  And  this  point 
they  explicitly  declare  to  be  met  by  the 
righteousness  of  Christ — by  Christ  as  our 
righteousness.  And  our  righteousness  not 
merely  by  reason  of  His  having  paid  the 
penalty  by  His  vicarious    and   propitiatory 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  loi 

death,  but  because,  by  His  active,  flawless, 
perfect  obedience,  He  has  fulfilled  the  law. 
The  believing  man  is  saved,  not  only  as 
being  washed  from  his  sins  in  the  most  pre- 
cious blood  of  the  slain  Lamb  of  God  but, 
as  having  fulfilled  the  law  in  the  person  of  his 
Surety.  Being  by  a  lively  faith  united  to 
Christ — being  mystically  and  legally  in 
Christ — Christ  becomes  his  righteousness. 
He  does  not  enter  heaven,  as  walking 
over  the  fragments  of  the  tables  of  God's 
law,  but  as  having  fulfilled  that  law  in 
Christ. 

I  have  referred  to  the  Homilies.  Quota- 
tions might  be  multiplied.  I  must  content 
myself  with  two  from  the  Homily  entitled 
**  The  First  Part  of  the  Sermon  of  Salva- 
tion." "He"  (God)  "provided  a  ransom 
for  us,  that  was  the  most  precious  body  and 
blood  of  His  own  dear  and  best  beloved 
Son,  Jesus  Christ,  who,  besides  this  ransom^ 
fulfilled  the  law  for  us  perfectly.''^  Again, 
"  Upon  Christ's  part,  justice,  that  is,  the 
satisfaction  of  God's  justice,  or  the  price  of 
our  redemption,  by  the  offering  of  His  body, 


102  LETTERS   TO   A 

and  shedding  of  His  blood,  with  fulfilling  oj 
the  law  perfectly  and  thoroughly ^  .  .  .  **  So 
that  Christ  is  now  the  righteousness  of  all 
them  that  truly  do  believe  in  Him.  He  for 
them  paid  their  ransom  by  His  death.  He 
for  them  fulfilled  the  law  in  His  life,  so  that 
now  in  Hi7n,  and  by  Hint,  every  true  Chris- 
tia?i  7nan  may  be  called  a  fulfiller  of  the  law  ; 
forasmuch  as  that  which  their  infirmity  lacketh, 
Chrisf  s  justice  hath  supplied ^  And  Hooker 
writes,  **  Christ  hath  merited  righteousness 
for  as  many  as  are  found  in  Him.  In  Him 
God  findeth  us,  if  we  be  faithful ;  for  by 
faith  we  are  incorporated  into  Him.  Then, 
although  in  ourselves  we  be  altogether  sinful 
and  unrighteous,  yet  even  the  man  which  in 
himself  is  impious,  full  of  iniquity,  full  of 
sin  ;  him  being  found  in  Christ  through 
faith,  and  having  his  sin  in  hatred  through 
repentance ;  him  God  beholdeth  with  a 
gracious  eye,  putteth  away  his  sin  by  not 
imputing  it,  taketh  quite  away  the  punish- 
ment due  thereunto  by  pardoning  it,  and 
accepteth  him  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  perfectly 
righteous  as  if  he  had  fulfilled  all  that  is  com- 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  103 

manded  hhn  in  the  lam :  shall  I  say  more 
perfectly  righteous  than  if  himself  had  ful- 
filled the  whole  law?  I  must  take  heed 
what  I  say ;  but  the  apostle  saith,  *  God 
made  Him  which  knew  no  sin  to  be  sin  for 
us,  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness 
of  God  in  Him.'  Such  we  are  iji  the  sight  of 
God  the  Father^  as  is  the  very  Son  of  God 
Himself  Let  it  be  counted  folly,  or  phrensy, 
or  fury,  or  whatsoever,  it  is  our  comfort  and 
our  wisdom  ;  we  care  for  no  knowledge  in 
the  world  but  this,  that  man  hath  sinned, 
and  God  hath  suffered  ;  that  God  hath  made 
Himself  the  sin  of  man,  and  that  men  are 
made  the  righteousness  of  God."* 

I  am  not  writing  a  theological  treatise. 
You  know  your  Bible  well  enough  to  know 
that  the  language  of  the  Homilies  and  that 
of  Hooker  faithfully  represents  the  teaching 
of  God's  Word  on  this  fundamental  point. 
But  I  sometimes  fear  that,  were  St.  Paul  to 
appear  among  us  as  a  hearer  even  of  some 
who  are  regarded  as  faithful  preachers,  he 

*  Hooker's  Works  (Keble's  editiorij  vol.  iii.,  Sermon  vi., 
p.  610). 


I04  LETTERS   TO   A 

would  say  to  their  preaching  of  Forgiveness, 
**  True — all  true — but  where  is  my  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  ?  Forgiveness  is  not 
the  whole  truth."  And  that  Luther  would 
make  the  same  complaining  criticism,  **  True 
— all  true — but  where  is  my  doctrine  of 
justificatio7i  by  faith  ?  "  I  must  refer  you  to 
the  Homilies — to  Luther  on  the  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians — and,  among  modern  writers, 
to  the  great  work  of  Bishop  O'Brien. 

IIL  The  Second  Coming  of  Christ. — 
We  are  most  deeply  indebted  to  some  of 
the  students  of  prophecy  in  these  later  days, 
however  widely  we  may  dissent  from  their 
general  schemes  of  prophetical  interpreta- 
tion, as  Premillenarians  and  Postmille- 
narians,  Pr2eterists,  Futurists,  for  having 
drawn  the  attention  of  the  Church  to  this 
grand  subject,  '*  that  blessed  hope  and  the 
glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God  and 
our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  It  may  not  be 
wholly  unnecessary  to  ask  you  to  read  your 
Bible  with  a  view  to  the  study  of  this  sub- 
ject. And,  to  say  nothing  of  many  grand 
passages  in  the  Old  Testament,    you  must 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  105 

be  brought  to  the  conclusion  (if  you  have 
not  yet  arrived  at  it),  that  the  second  coming 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  is  the  hope  of  the  Church ; 
that  looking  for,  waiting  for,  loving  His 
appearing  is  to  be  the  Church's  spirit  and 
attitude. 

This  subject  has  suffered  from  the  extra- 
vagant and,  in  some  cases,  even  presump- 
tuous statements  of  the  less  sober  students 
of  prophecy.  But,  without  falling  into  their 
errors,  we  must  give  completeness  and 
brightness  to  our  teaching  by  bringing  out 
the  FACT.  Whatever  system  we  adopt,  as 
we  survey  the  whole  range  of  unfulfilled 
prophecy,  in  reference  to  the  future  of  the 
Jews,  their  ingathering,  their  land,  their 
city,  and  their  future  place  and  work  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  we  must  so  preach 
as  to  keep  the  faith  and  hopes  of  our  people 
centred,  not  so  much  upon  the  incipient 
blessedness  of  our  disembodied  spirit,  when 
*' with  Christ  in  joy  and  felicity,"  (although 
this  may  be  proved  by  sure  warrant  of  God's 
word,)  as  upon  His  personal  return  in  glory, 
and  the  consummation  of  the  blessedness  of 


io6  LETTERS   TO  A 

the  saints,  at  their  "  gathering  together  unto 
Him  ; ''  when  His  work  of  redemption  shall 
be  crowned  by  the  resurrection  of  their 
bodies,  and  this  travailing  and  groaning 
creation  ^'  delivered  from  the  bondage  of 
vile  corruption  into  the  glorious  liberty  of 
the  children  of  God."  Preach  the  coming 
Saviour  as  the  hope  of  the  Church,  and  bid 
your  people  fix  their  eyes  beyond  and  above 
the  grave.  Preach  death  as  a  solemn  stage 
in  life,  as  a  solemn  event  for  which  they  are 
to  stand  prepared;  preach  death  to  be- 
lievers as  a  departure  to  be  with  Christ ; 
but  preach  the  return  of  the  King  and  the 
final  setting  up  of  His  kingdom,  as  that  to 
which  their  hearts  are  to  be  upraised. 
*'  When  Christ,  who  is  our  life,  shall  ap- 
pear, then  shall  ye  also  appear  with  Him 
in  glory."  * 

IV.  God's  Grace  and  Man's  Responsi- 
bility.— On  this  unfathomable  subject — a 
subject  of  long-enduring  controversy — is  it 
not  to  be  feared,  on  the  one  hand,  that  the 
preaching  of  many  is  defective ;  and,  on 
^  Colossians  iii.  4. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  107 

the  other  hand,  that  the  preaching  is  too 
narrow  ?  We  must  not  shrink  from  going 
as  far  as  Scripture  goes ;  but  we  must  not 
go  farther.  We  have  a  model  in  the  seven- 
teenth Article  of  our  Church.  In  the  spirit 
of  that  Article  we  must  be  careful  to  remem- 
ber and  to  insist  upon  this,  that  man's 
salvation  is  presented  to  us  from  two  stand- 
points in  Holy  Scripture — God's  side  and 
ma7i^s  side.  The  Bible  sets  forth  to  us  both 
God's  grace  and  our  own  responsibility. 
Some  preachers,  in  magnifying  the  one, 
minimize,  if  they  do  not  destroy,  the  other. 
To  omit  all  mention  of  God's  electing  grace 
and  predestinating  purpose  is  surely  to  keep 
back  a  part  of  His  **  whole  counsel."  We 
find  it  in  Scripture,  our  Church  teaches  it 
unmistakably.  But  are  there  not  many 
preachers  who  say,  '*  The  subject  is  too 
deep  for  us :  we  do  not  presume  to  touch 
upon  such  mysteries "  ?  Are  there  not 
others  who  see  nothing  but  election  in  the 
Bible,  and  who  are  perpetually  harping 
upon  one  string — election  ?  The  effect  of 
the  former  preaching  is  to  deprive  the  true 


io8  LETTERS   TO  A 

children  of  God  of  a  doctrine  very  full  of 
comfort,  and  one  by  which  they  would  be 
stimulated  to  holiness.*  The  effect  of  the 
latter  preaching  is  to  weaken  our  sense  of 
responsibility,  to  slacken  effort,  to  reduce 
men  to  a  state  of  perilous  passivity,  and  to 
a  neglect  of  the  diligent  use  of  the  means 
of  grace.  The  effects,  if  developed  in  all 
their  full  peril,  may  be  presumption  and 
careless  living,  issuing  in  grievous  sin. 
The  truth  is,  that  the  doctrine  of  God's 
grace  underlies  and  pervades  all,  while  it 
is  sometimes  very  strongly  set  forth.  But  it 
is  no  less  the  truth  that  we  must  so  preach 
to  men  as  not,  in  any  sense  or  measure,  to 
lower  or  relax  their  sense  of  their  respon- 
sibility, and  their  need  of  diligent  effort, 
and  of  the  diligent  use  of  divinely-appointed 

*  "  The  godly  consideration  of  Predestination,  and  our 
Election  in  Christ,  is  full  of  sweet,  pleasant,  and  unspeak- 
able comfort  to  godly  persons,  and  such  as  feel  in  themselves 
the  working  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  mortifying  the  works  of 
the  flesh  and  their  earthly  members,  and  drawing  up  their 
minds  to  high  and  heavenly  things,  as  well  because  it  doth 
greatly  establish  and  confirm  their  faith  of  eternal  salvation 
to  be  enjoyed  through  Christ,  as  because  it  doth  fervently 
kindle  their  love  towards  God." 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  109 

means.  We  shall  appear  inconsistent — not 
seldom  even  to  ourselves.  There  is  no  real 
inconsistency  in  God's  truth.  But  we 
cannot  see  the  whole  in  its  every  bearing 
and  relation. 

We  must  therefore  be  content  to  appear 
to  our  people  inconsistent — too  Calvinistic 
to  some;  to  others,  too  Arminian.  Say 
honestly  that  the  full  reconciliation  of  these 
apparently  conflicting  truths  is  beyond  you. 
Never  force  truth  out  of  its  proportions  in 
order  to  force  harmony  and  symmetry.  As 
I  have  urged  elsewhere,  preach  not  only 
what  is  in  Scripture,  but  preach  it  as  it  is 
in  Scripture.  Truth  distorted  and  out  of 
proportion  becomes  error. 

As  I  leave  this  point  I  give  you  more 
words  from  Hooker  : — 

**  No  man's  condition  so  sure  as  ours : 
the  prayer  of  Christ  is  more  than  sufficient 
both  to  strengthen  us,  be  we  never  so  weak; 
and  to  overthrow  all  adversary  power,  be  it 
never  so  strong  and  potent.  This  prayer 
must  not  exclude  our  labour :  their  thoughts 
are  vain  who  think  that  their  watching  can 


no  LETTERS   TO  A 

preserve  the  city  which  God  Himself  is  not 
willing  to  keep;  and  are  not  theirs  as  vain, 
who  think  that  God  will  keep  the  city,  for 
which  they  themselves  are  not  careful  to 
watch  ?  The  husbandman  may  not  there- 
fore burn  his  plough,  nor  the  merchant  for- 
sake his  trade,  because  God  hath  promised, 
*  I  will  not  forsake  thee.'  And  do  the  pro- 
mises of  God  concerning  our  stability,  think 
you,  make  it  a  matter  indifferent  for  us  to 
use  or  not  to  use  the  means  whereby  to 
attend  or  not  to  attend  to  reading  ?  to  pray 
or  not  to  pray  that  we  *  fall  not  into  tempta- 
tions '  ?  Surely  if  we  look  to  stand  in  the 
faith  of  the  sons  of  God,  we  must  hourly, 
continually,  be  providing  and  setting  our- 
selves to  strive.  It  was  not  the  meaning 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  in  saying,  '  Father, 
keep  them  in  Thy  name,'  that  we  should 
be  careless  to  keep  ourselves.  So  our  own 
safety,  our  own  sedulity,  is  required."  * 

V.  Controversial  Preaching. — Some 
preachers  are  pulpit  belligerents,  never  so 
happy  as  when  preaching  as  direct  contro- 

*  Hooker's  Works,  Sermon  i.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  597. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  m 

versialists.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are 
preachers  who  have  an  undue,  and  even 
morbid,  aversion  for  controversy.  As  a 
general  rule,  be  content  with  preaching  and 
pressing  positive  truth — the  truth  opposed 
to  the  errors  from  which  you  would  pre- 
serve your  people.  They  will  then  be  fur- 
nished with  a  touchstone  and  a  test.  But 
there  may  be  occasions  when  controversy 
becomes  a  duty — a  duty  plain  and  urgent. 
*' Contend  earnestly"  (not  angrily)  **for  the 
faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints," 
is  a  divinely  inspired  injunction.  A  contro- 
versial spirit  is  sometimes  uppermost  in  the 
writings  of  St.  Paul.  Error  may  be  aggres- 
sive in  your  parish — from  infidelity,  from 
Socinlanism,  from  Romanism,  from  Dissent, 
from  the  specious  sophistries  of  Plymouth 
Brethrenism  ;  and  although  it  is  wise  to  be 
careful,  even  in  such  cases,  lest  you  preach 
it  into  importance  and  notoriety,  and  do  its 
advocates  a  service  by  drawing  the  attention 
of  your  people  to  it,  there  may  be  times 
when  the  words  of  St.  Jude  and  your  Ordi- 
nation Vow — to  be  "  ready,  with  all  faithful 


112  LETTERS   TO  A 

diligence,  to  banish  and  drive  away  all 
erroneous  and  strange  doctrines  contrary  to 
God's  Word" — may  press  irresistibly  (and 
justly  so)  upon  your  conscience.  One  can 
only  say,  seek  Divine  guidance,  and,  as  a 
young  man,  the  counsel  of  your  elders. 
And  if  a  sense  of  duty  impels  you  to  enter 
the  lists,  be  on  your  guard  against  impulse, 
temper,  uncharitableness,  and  lack  of  can- 
dour. Watch  your  motives  and  spirit 
narrowly.  Remember  **  what  manner  of 
spirit  ye  are  of."  *^  In  meekness  instruct- 
ing those  that  oppose  themselves."  **The 
wrath  of  man  worketh  not  the  righteousness 
of  God." 

VI.  Should  your  work  lie  among  intelli- 
gent and  educated  people ;  if  you  have  to 
preach  to  men  who  are  reading  the  current 
literature  of  the  day,  and  discussing  those 
points  in  which  it  is  urged  that  physical 
science  is  in  fatal  and  triumphant  collision 
with  the  Bible,  you  must  not  fail  to  introduce 
an  evidential  element  into  your  pulpit  teach- 
ing. They  will  naturally  look  to  you — some 
of  them  perhaps — in  a  carping  and  cynical 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  113 

Spirit,  but  others  inquiringly  and  anxiously 
— for  an  answer  to  objections  against  the 
Mosaic  account  of  Creation,  against  all  that 
is  supernatural,  and  against  the  moral  teach- 
ing of  some  of  the  lessons  and  examples  of 
Scripture,  especially  in  the  Old  Testament. 
Amid  such  a  class  of  hearers  as  I  have 
specified,  you  cannot  wholly  ignore  these 
things.  There  is  a  deep  and  strong  under- 
current of  scepticism  in  many  minds.  More 
men  are  shaken  than  care  to  tell  you  of  it. 

Here  you  need  the  greatest  wisdom. 

Do  not  assume  that  all  difficulties  and 
doubts  are  the  result  of  moral  depravity. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  honest  doubt.  There 
are  real  moral  difficulties  in  the  lives  of 
some  of  the  Old  Testament  saints.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  character  of  Jacob.  Deal 
kindly  and  tenderly  with  such  doubters ;  and 
with  the  difficulties  of  those  who  are  not 
doubters,  but  only  oppressed,  often  painfully, 
with  difficulties  which  they  would  gladly 
have  removed.  Make  allowance  for  tem- 
perament, for  intellectual  idiosyncracies. 
Do  not  denounce  harshly ;  nor  ticket  a  man 

8 


114  LETTERS   TO   A 

as  a  sceptic,  when  he  is  only  in  difficulty. 
The  very  difficulty  and  doubt  may  be  the 
outcome  and  working  of  earnest  inquiry, 
and  a  sign  of  far  more  lively  interest  in 
religious  truth  than  is  to  be  found  in  men 
who  have  simply  inherited  their  creed,  and 
who  have  never  doubted  because  they  have 
never  studied,  and  never  felt  a  difficulty 
because  they  have  never  given  an  intelli- 
gent, far  less  an  anxious,  thought  to  the 
matter. 

With  reference  to  a  point  of  which  we 
hear  tcsqiie  ad  nauseavi — the  alleged  antagon- 
ism between  Revelation  and  Science — you 
cannot  perhaps  evade  it.  But  be  careful. 
To  denounce  men  of  science  en  masse,  as  if 
they  were  all  infidels  or  atheists,  is  as  un- 
wise as  it  is  uncharitable,  and  as  uncharit- 
able as  it  is  untrue.  Many  eminent  men  of 
science  have  been  and  are  humble  believers. 
True,  some  are  hasty  and  arrogant,  but  not 
all.  Great  and  grievous  harm  is  done  by 
sweeping  accusations  from  pulpit  and  plat- 
form. When  you  deem  it  to  be  a  duty  to 
touch    upon    these    points,    remember    the 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  115 

calibre  and  power  of  those  against  whose 
errors  you  would  warn  your  flock.  In  such 
cases  a  **  little"  science  **  is  a  dangerous 
thing."  Be  sure  that  you  have  enough  of 
it  for  the  question  in  hand,  and  that  it  is 
sound.  Beware  of  making  yourself  ridicu- 
lous ;  and,  what  is  far  worse,  injuring  by 
your  unsound  science  or  illogical  reasonings 
the  cause  which  you  would  defend.  Be  sure 
of  your  sling  and  stone  when  you  go  out  to 
meet  Goliath.  Better  leave  the  matter  un- 
touched than  show  yourself  a  pretentious 
ignoramus.  Truth  is  strong  even  in  the 
mouth  of  a  feeble  advocate.  But  be  sure  it 
is  truth. 

VII.  One  point  more.  No  doubt  the 
great  truths  of  the  Gospel  are  to  be  the 
staple  of  the  pulpit  teaching.  But  we  are 
ministers  of  the  Church  of  England.  We 
would  attach  our  people  to  our  Church,  not 
as  ignorant  members,  blind  bigots,  or  politi- 
cal partisans.  We  want  them  to  understand 
our  principles.  Whence  our  Church's  mis- 
sion and  credentials  ?  What  her  claims  ? 
Why  should  the  Church  of  England  be  esta- 


it6  letters   to  a 

blished  ?  What  are  her  principles  ?  What  her 
teaching  ?  Why  is  Churchmanship  better 
than  Romanism  or  Dissent  ?  How  do  we 
defend  Episcopacy  ?  What  have  we  to  say 
when  this  and  that  passage  in  our  Prayer 
Book  is  assailed  ? 

Here  we  have  been,  too  many  of  us, 
wanting.  Romanists,  Presbytgu-ians,  Wes- 
leyans.  Independents,  Baptists,  to  go  no 
further,  are  better  indoctrinated  in  their 
principles  than  most  members  of  the  Church 
of  England.  No  doubt,  we  want  our  people 
first  to  be  true  Christians.  But  should  we 
not  sometimes  help  them  to  give  an  answer 
to  the  question — "Why  am  I  a  Church- 
man? "    ij^.,.,,,,.  ^- .  ^M'         •■  ^-. 

I  am  by  no  meanb  arguing  for  keeping 
up  a  direct  and  constant  fire  from  the  pulpit 
battery  against  other  religious  systems  and 
bodies.  Far  otherwise.  But  surely  we  may 
seize  occasions,  and  make  occasions,  for 
training  them  in  an  intelligent,  loyal,  and 
grateful  Churchmanship,  without  keeping 
up  a  running  fire  of  controversy  or  making 
them  intolerant  bigots. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  ny 

The  result  of  our  neglect  is  the  apathy  of 
which  we  often  complain.  This  is  a  real 
weakness,  in  the  hour  of  our  Church's 
danger. 

Yours  faithfully, 

John  C.  Miller. 


VII. 

The  Work  of  the  Ministry. —  Visitation. 

I.   The  Sick. 

My  dear  Brother, — *'No  practitioner 
worth  calling  to  the  bedside  was  ever  pro- 
duced by  bookwork  merely.  A  man  so 
trained  would  not  merely  be  useless,  he 
would  be  positively  dangerous." 

So  said  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  Eng- 
lish surgeons,  a  short  time  ago.* 

His  words  apply,  with  much  force  of  truth, 
to  the  important  branch  of  ministerial  duty 
to  which  we  now  pass — Visitation.  You 
must  become  an  efficient  Visiting  Pastor  by 
practical  experience.  Elder  brethren  can  only 
give  hints  and  counsels  to  start  you.     Your 

Sir  Henry  Thompson,  at    University  College  Hospital 
Dinner. — Ti7nes,  May  7th,  1877. 


120  LETTERS   TO  A 

theology  may  be  learned  from  books — visita- 
tion must  be  learned  by  visiting-. 

In  no  function  of  his  ministry  does  the 
young  and  inexperienced  minister  find  him- 
self so  much  at  a  loss  as  when  called,  for 
the  first  time,  to  visit  a  sick  or  dying  man. 
He  is  thoroughlyill  at  ease,  at  a  time  when 
he  requires  all  his  self-possession.  Often  he 
has  had  little  or  no  experience  of  sickness 
in  his  own  person,  or  in  the  cases  of  others. 
He  cannot  enter  into  the  sick  man's  weak- 
ness and  nervous  sensibility.  And,  what  is 
worse,  while  he  is  painfully  impressed  with 
his  responsibility  in  ministering  to  one  who 
may  be  a  dying  man,  he  is  no  less  painfully 
conscious  of  his  own  rawness  and  of  his  lack 
of  knowledge  and  skill  in  dealing  spiritually 
with  the  case.  How  shall  he  set  about  it  ? 
What  shall  he  read?  What  shall  he  say? 
A  few  hints  may  not  be  in  vain. 

Faithful,  painstaking,  discriminating  visi- 
tation will  soon  tell  upon  your  sermons. 
Visitation  in  which  you  are  not  content  with 
the  utterance  of  a  round  of  platitudes  and 
the    continued    offering    up    of    the    same 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  121 

Stereotyped  forms  of  prayer,  but  in  which 
you  are  studying  the  symptoms  of  each 
particular  case.  In  physical  ailments,  the 
life  or  death  of  the  patient  turns,  in  no 
small  measure,  upon  the  skill  of  the  physi- 
cian or  surgeon  in  diagnosis.  The  disease 
or  accident  may  be  identical  in  a  given 
number  of  cases  ;  but  in  every  case  it  will 
be  affected  and  modified  more  or  less  by 
the  constitution,  temperament,  previous  con- 
dition, and  habits  of  the  patient. 

Aim  then  at  accurate  and  skilful  diagnosis. 
Adopt  and  modify  general  rules  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  individual  case.  The 
object  of  the  physician  or  surgeon  is  to  heal ; 
or,  if  that  be  hopeless,  to  diminish  suffering, 
and  to  give  such  ease  and  comfort  as  the  case 
may  admit.  Your  object,  too,  in  all  cases 
is  one  and  the  same.  But  it  is  not  to  be 
pursued,  in  every  case,  by  the  same  means. 
The  physician  knows  to  which  class  of 
remedies  in  the  pharmacopoeia  he  must  turn 
for  the  benefit  of  his  patient.  But  in  draw- 
ing up  his  prescriptions,  and  in  laying  down 
his  treatment,  he  will   blend  or  modify  his 


122  LETTERS   TO  A 

remedies  according*  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  individual  case. 

Here,  then,  at  once,  you  become  a  close 
and  earnest  student  of  human  nature.  You 
must  study  it,  not  in  the  abstract  only,  but 
in  the  individual  man  or  woman  beforey  ou. 

You  are  studying  a  case  which  is  one  of 
a  class ;  and  this,  I  need  hardly  say,  what- 
ever be  the  result  to  the  sick  person,  very 
soon  and  very  beneficially  must  influence 
your  sermons.  You  will  find  that,  with  a 
good  foundation  of  theological  knowledge, 
visitation  is  the  best  preparation  for  preach- 
ing ;  that  is,  if  your  sermons  are  not  to  be 
mere  matter-of-course  addresses,  occupying 
a  conventional  twenty  minutes  or  half-hour, 
but  real,  practical,  well-adapted  utterances 
to  your  own  flock.  For,  except  in  very  rare 
instances,  every  case  which  you  are  visiting 
is  typical  of  many  others.  You  are  studying 
that  with  which  you  have  your  first  concern, 
in  and  out  of  the  pulpit — human  nature  in 
the  persons  of  your  own  parishioners.  No 
mere  bookworm  can  be  a  true  pastor.  Your 
college    tutors    and    professors    may    have 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  123 

turned  you  out  a  good  and  even  learned 
divinity  scholar ;  but  you  must  walk  the 
hospital^  and  have  your  clinical  practice.  Our 
greatest  physicians  and  surgeons  are  not 
only  healing  their  patients,  but  studying  their 
cases,  and  learning  from  them  every  day. 
The  pages  of  the  Lancet  and  the  Medical 
Gazette  contain  every  week  details  of  cases 
and  of  treatment  which  are  enriching  the 
stores  of  medical  science  and  art,  and  con- 
tributing to  the  development  and  perfecting 
of  medical  knowledge,  and  to  the  diminution 
of  physical  suffering.  In  dealing  with  this 
difficult  and  important  function  of  your 
ministry,  I  purpose  to  touch  on — 
I.  Visitation  of  the  Sick. 
II.  Visitation  of  the  Afflicted. 

III.  General  Visitation. 

I.  Visitation  of  the  Sick. — At  the 
outset  I  cannot  withhold  a  discouraging 
remark,  in  reference  to  a  large  number  of 
cases  which  will  call  for  your  anxious  and 
faithful  diligence.  I  mean  the  cases  of  men 
and  women  who  have  been  living  in  utter 
neglect  of  their  souls,  and  even  in  notori- 


124  LETTERS   TO  A 

ous  vice.  Such  an  one  has  never  entered 
your  church  doors.  And  if  your  parish  is 
a  manageable  one,  in  which  you  personally 
know  all  your  people,  and  visit  their  homes 
in  their  times  of  health,  this  may  have  been 
in  spite  of  all  your  earnest  remonstrances. 
He  has  evaded,  procrastinated;  perhaps 
insulted  you.  Now  that  he  is  laid  low  by 
accident  or  disease,  you  are  sent  for  by 
mother,  or  wife,  or  child — perhaps  by  him- 
self. Conscience  is  awakened.  He  is  fright- 
ened at  the  thought  of  possible  or  probable 
death.  Remorse  brings  wretchedness.  He 
protests  that,  if  he  recover,  he  will  turn  over 
a  new  leaf.  You  shall  see  him  at  church. 
He  will  be  a  different  man  at  home.  You 
begin  to  be  hopeful.    Clearly  he  is  impressed. 

He  recovers.  Sick-bed  fears  and  reso- 
lutions are  soon  forgotten.  His  seeming 
repentance  was  only  fright.  What  appeared 
his  sorrow  for  sin  was  only  fear  of  hell.  The 
dog  turns  to  his  own  vomit  again ;  the  sow 
to  her  mire. 

These  are  most  sad  cases.  They  are 
among  a  pastor's  bitterest  disappointments. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  125 

But,  alas  !  they  are  very  common.  I  believe 
that  there  are  few  experienced  pastors  who 
will  not  tell  us  mournfully  that  the  instances 
are  rare  in  which  an  ungodly  man  who  has 
been  thus  frightened  into  professions  and 
resolutions  has,  upon  recovery,  carried  them 
out.  The  smell  of  the  fire  of  his  affliction 
has  soon  passed  away.  Nevertheless,  your 
duty  is  clear — to  do  your  best,  with  much 
prayer,  earnestly,  faithfully,  and  lovingly. 
It  is  only  right  that  we  should  prepare  you 
for  disappointment.  At  least,  your  visits 
and  your  teachings  may  tell  upon  others  in 
the  house.  And  you  are  "pure  from  "  his 
"blood." 

It  is  with  unaffected  self-diffidence  and 
reluctance  that  I  differ  from  Dean  Burton, 
in  whose  "  Treatise  on  the  Pastoral  Office  " 
there  is  so  very  much  which  must  be  com- 
mended to  your  study,  as  truly  admirable  in 
practical  wisdom  and  in  Christian  spirit. 
But  my  experience  leads  me  to  question 
his  statement,  "  Only  in  particular  cases 
will  anything  be  gained  by  being  quite 
alone  with  a  sick  person."     No  doubt  there 


126  LETTERS   TO   A 

is  great  truth  In  his  words,  *'  That  it  is  a 
great  gain  if  others  of  the  household  can 
be  persuaded  habitually  to  be  present  at  our 
ministrations  to  the  sick,  and  to  join  in  our 
prayers.  .  .  .  Sickness  and  death  are  often 
sent  into  a  family  for  the  sake  of  the  healthy 
survivors."  But  I  believe  it  to  be  of  very 
great  importance  to  secure  one  interview,  at 
least,  alone;  and  this  for  more  than  one 
reason. 

As  a  rule,  sick  people  are  reticent  about 
their  spiritual  state  in  the  presence  of  rela- 
tives, even  the  nearest  and  dearest.  So  I 
have  often  found  it.  I  need  not  say  that  I 
am  not  dreaming  of  such  probings  of  the 
conscience  and  heart  as  are  involved  in  the 
system  of  auricular  confession.  I  am  not 
for  a  moment  supposing  that  you  are  in  the 
sick  man's  house  as  a  Romish  confessor 
or  director.  But  you  want  to  take  as  accu- 
rate a  diagnosis  as  you  can.  Now  the  sick 
man  may  have  sins,  and  fears,  and  con- 
flicts, of  which  to  speak,  which  he  will 
(after  a  while,  at  any  rate)  feel  it  to  be 
a  great  relief  to  tell  to  you,  but  which  he 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  127 

would  shrink  from  laying  bare  before  his 
mother,  wife,  or  child.  I  can,  while  I  am 
writing,  recall  the  recent  case  of  a  sick  man 
who  would  abhor  the  confessional,  and 
would  have  shrunk  with  indignation  had  I 
attempted  to  be  his  confessor,  but  who,  of 
his  own  accord,  told  me  very  touchingly, 
and  with  strong  emotion,  even  to  tears,  of 
spiritual  conflicts,  past  and  present,  which  I 
feel  sure  that  he  would  not  have  laid  bare, 
had  we  not  been  alone.  He  never  touched 
on  them  until  the  only  bystander — his  wife — 
had  left  the  room. 

It  may  be  wise  not  to  ask  for  such  privacy 
at  first.  Let  the  sick  man  get  accustomed 
to  you.  Very  many  would  have  a  nervous 
fear,  if  left  alone  at  the  first  or  second  visit. 

Here  I  can  cordially  take  up  the  admira- 
ble words  of  Dean  Burgon,  who,  having 
repudiated  the  desirableness  of  ''systematic 
training"  (of  pastors)  "in  any  part  of  the 
casuistry  of  the  confessional,"  and  declared 
that  no  consideration  of  the  sad  consequences 
of  unskilfulness  or  unfaithfulness  '*  are  suffi- 
cient to  outweigh  the  conviction  entertained 


128  LETTERS   TO  A 

of  the  evils  which  would  arise  from  the 
recognised  admission  of  any  part  of  that 
detestable  system  which  has  borne  such 
deadly  fruit  in  the  Church  of  Rome,"  writes 
in  a  passage  which  I  cannot  abstain  from 
quoting  : — 

''  For  (the  question  may  fairly  be  asked) 
does  not  this  solicitude  about  the  art  of  deal- 
ing with  unquiet  consciences  arise  out  of  a 
mistaken  view  of  what  is  required  of  the 
physician  of  souls  ?  Is  it  his  office  to  probe 
the  hearts  of  those  who  come  to  him  '  to 
open  their  grief  ?  Is  it  not  rather  to  lend 
a  patient,  yet  most  incurious,  ear  (the  reverse 
of  inquisitive,  I  mean,)  to  the  history  of  what 
does  so  weigh  down  a  fellow-sinner ;  by 
soothing  words  to  calm  his  agitated  spirit, 
if  he  seems  unduly  miserable ;  or  if  (a  far 
more  probable  supposition)  he  shows  him- 
self unaware  of  the  largeness  of  his  misery 
— glossing  and  palliating,  and,  as  it  were, 
half-explaining,  his  offence  away — by  calm 
and  friendly  speech  to  remind  him  that  not 
7na7i,  but  God,  is  his  judge;  and  that  not 
unto  us,  but  unto  the  Searcher  of  hearts,  he 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  129 

IS  In  reality  confessing  his  sin  ?  Above 
all  things,  in  silence  and  in  love  to  listen; 
next,  if  need  be,  with  a  faithful,  yet  merciful, 
hand  (faithful,  as  remembering  whose  ambas- 
sadors we  are ;  merciful,  as  remembering 
our  own  exceeding  unworthlness)  to  touch 
the  sore  which  has  thus  been  brought  to 
light ;  yet  not  with  judicial  inqulsltlveness 
(God  forbid!),  as  having  for  our  object  the 
eliciting  of  one  additional  detail ;  but  with 
brotherly  sympathy  rather,  as  supremely 
anxious  to  minister  *  such  ghostly  counsel, 
advice,  and  comfort,'  that  the  conscience  of 
the  other  *  may  be  relieved  ;  '  then  (if  ques- 
tioned), according  to  the  best  of  our  ability, 
to  resolve  any  doubts  or  inquiries  which  may 
be  proposed  to  us ;  lastly,  as  far  as  possible, 
to  put  all  that  has  taken  place  clean  away, 
observing  silence  concerning  every  parti- 
cular, profound  as  the  silence  of  the  grave 
— this  seems  to  represent,  in  the  main,  our 
duty  in  this  difficult  department  of  pastoral 
responsibility.  And  I  see  no  part  of  it  which 
a  man  of  discretion  and  intelligence,  fur- 
nished  with   an   ordinary  amount  of  theo- 

9 


I30 


LETTERS  TO  A 


logical  learning,  and  who  has  had  a  fair  share 
of  parochial  experience  (who,  therefore,  in  no 
sense  can  be  called  a  novice),  may  not  hope 
to  discharge  with  sufficient  success."* 

There  is  a  further  reason,  and,  in  some 
cases,  my  experience  teaches  me,  a  very 
strong  one,  for  desiring  one  private  inter- 
view, at  any  rate.  This  is  when  the  pastor 
feels  it  to  be  his  bounden,  though  difficult 
and  painful,  duty  to  endeavour  to  convince 
of  sin.  There  are  cases  in  which  he  must 
awhile  withhold  direct  couifort.  He  detects 
self-righteousness.  The  language  often 
heard  is  of  this  kind:  "  I  know  that  I  have 
not  been  what  I  ought  to  have  been  ;  but 
I  have  not  been  as  bad  as  some  others.  I 
have  done  nobody  any  harm.  I  have  done 
my  best  for  my  family.  But  God  is  merci- 
ful, and  I  look  to  my  blessed  Saviour  to 
make  up  my  defects."  These  are  cases  in 
which  the  pastor  soon  finds  out  that  the 
man  is  resting  not  upon  Christ  only.  He 
has  not  ceased  from  the  vain  endeavour  to 
establish    his    own    righteousness,    but,    at 

*  "  Treatise  on  the  Pastoral  Office/'  pp.  220,  221. 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  131 

best,  Is  looking  to  Christ  to  eke  out  his 
defects.  He  is  not  shut  up  unto  grace — 
grace  only.  And  perhaps  he  has  been  out- 
wardly a  moral  man — an  amiable  husband, 
a  kind  father — no  drunkard,  nor  a  profligate. 
He  says  all  this,  and  those  dearest  to  him 
are  standing  by.  They  hear  every  word. 
You  want,  not  to  disparage  morality,  nor 
to  make  it  out  that  he  might  as  well  have 
been  a  bad  husband  or  a  vicious  man  but, 
to  show  him  that  these  are  no  true  ground- 
work for  a  sinner  as  his  hope  of  salvation. 
You  want  to  show  him  their  insufficiency, 
and  that  he  needs  a  Saviour.  Now,  on 
such  occasions,  I  have  known  a  wife,  for 
instance,  chime  in  with  the  sick  man's  self- 
approval  and  self-dependence,  and,  as  it 
were,  add  fuel  to  his  righteousness.  You 
have  before  you  a  very  difficult  and  very 
delicate  task — to  e^npty  him  of  self ;  and  she, 
by  her  presence,  adds  to  your  difficulties. 
You  seem  unkind,  and  even  cruel,  to  her, 
if  she  be  as  unenlightened  as  he. 

It  is,  at  best,  one  of  the  most  trying  duties, 
when  a  dying  man  is  in  feebleness  and  pain, 


132  LETTERS   TO  A 

and  either  utterly  dark  or  encased  in  self- 
satisfaction,  to  set  about  the  work  of  spiritual 
enlightenment     or     of     the     overthrow    of 
his  self-righteousness.     Our  hearts  yearn  to 
speak  peace.     But  it  is  a  time  for  probing 
rather  than  for  peace,  for  conviction  rather 
than  comfort.       I    ask  only  that  our  diffi- 
culties be  not  increased  by  the  presence  of 
others    who,    in    their    mistaken    affection, 
would  have  us  cry,  **  Peace,  where  (as  yet) 
there  is  no  peace,"  and  thus  send  a  sinner 
into  eternity  with  *'  a  lie  in  his  right  hand." 
After  all,  we  may  secure  both  the  advantage 
to  the  sick  and  to  ourselves  of  one  private 
interview,  and  the  undoubted  advantage  to 
the  healthy,  of  which  Dean  Burgon   writes 
truly,   that    they    should    have   the    **  great 
gain"  of  joining  us  in  the  sick  room  in  our 
prayers,   thus    learning  for    themselves  the 
lessons  which  are  addressed  directly  to  the 
sick  or  dying  man.     I  am  by  no  means  ask- 
ing   that  all  our    visitations   should  be   in 
private ;  but  only  that  we  should  have  full 
and  fair  opportunity  for  the  freest  pastoral 
intercourse  with  the  sick  to  whom  we  minister. 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  133 

Tenderness  is  essential.  Enter  the  cham- 
ber very  gently.  Tread  noiselessly.  Get 
near  to  the  sufferer.  Speak  as  softly  as 
may  be.  Remember  his  nerves ;  noise  is 
often  torture.  Sympathise  with  his  weak- 
ness, restlessness,  and  pain.  True,  you  are 
not  come  to  minister  to  his  body ;  but  enter 
into  his  symptoms  and  his  suffering.  Ask 
what  his  doctor  has  said.  Avoid  a  profes- 
sional, official,  conventional  air.  The  case 
may  be  too  grave  for  cheerful  words  ;  but, 
if  otherwise,  let  your  face  carry  a  little  sun- 
shine into  the  sick  room.  Avoid  fussiness. 
Be  ready  to  kneel  without  stool  or  cushion. 
Go  with  a  brother's  heart.  Always  take 
the  sick  man's  hand,  if  he  can  bear  it.  Be 
brief — brief  in  your  talk,  brief  in  your  read- 
ings, brief  in  your  prayers — your  whole  visit 
brief.  Take  up  one  point.  A  sick  man's 
brain  is  soon  over-tasked ;  his  nerves  soon 
jar ;  his  strength  soon  fails.  Leave  a  well- 
chosen  text  behind  you,  as  you  say  *'  Good- 
bye !  "  Let  your  *' Good-bye"  be  *^  God 
bless  you  !  "  Let  your  last  look  be  one  of 
tenderness  and  love.     Whatever  you  are  in 


134  LETTERS   TO  A 

your  pulpit,  Barnabas,  not  Boanerges,  is 
your  pattern  by  the  sick  bed. 

In  all  cases  seek  Divine  guidance  and 
blessing.  Never  cross  a  sick  man's  thres- 
hold without  lifting  up  your  heart  in  prayer, 
that  God,  by  His  Spirit,  may  give  you  the 
word  in  season  for  this  individual  case. 

From  time  to  time,  you  will  be  called  to 
the  visitation  of  ripe  and  rejoicing  Chris- 
tians, in  whose  cases  the  anticipatory  words 
of  your  great  Master  and  Judge  will  be 
directly  and  closely  fulfilled,  **  Sick,  and  ye 
visited  me."  You  will  find  yourself  by  the 
side  of  a  sick  or  dying  one  who  is  far  ahead 
of  you  in  spiritual  knowledge  and  Christian 
experience.  In  some  cases  he  has  been 
long,  very  long,  afflicted — almost,  if  not 
quite,  bedridden.  Shut  out  from  the  privi- 
leges of  God's  house,  and  from  all  public 
means  of  grace,  such  an  one  will  remind 
you  that  *'  there  is  7ioiie  that  teacheth  like 
Hi^ny  You  will  look  and  listen  wonder- 
ingly,  as  words  of  most  patient,  unmur- 
muring submission,  and  even  of  fervent 
gratitude,     fall    from    his    lips.      The    tear 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  135 

which  glistens  in  his  eye  is  not  a  tear  of 
sorrow.  Sometimes,  haply  in  homely  phrase, 
pithy  and  golden  sayings  are  dropped, 
which  you  will  treasure  up.  Here  you  will 
feel  yourself  to  be  a  learner  rather  than 
a  teacher,  carrying  away  more  than  you 
impart.  Such  cases,  as  exemplifying  the 
faithfulness  of  God,  the  sufficiency  of  Christ, 
and  the  power  of  Holy  Scripture,  will  be  to 
you  a  blessed  confirmation  of  your  faith. 
You  may  be  well  versed  in  evidential  theo- 
logy; you  may  have  mastered  Butler  and 
Paley;  but  in  the  power  of  the  gospel  to 
sustain  and  cheer,  by  faith  and  hope,  those 
who  have  passed  long  years  of  suffering, 
amid  almost  unbroken  spiritual  sunshine, 
under  the  felt  presence  of  God,  and  in  the 
light  of  His  countenance,  you  will  have  the 
most  touching  evidence  of  the  reality  of 
Divine  grace,  and  will  go  back  to  your 
study  and  your  pulpit  with  a  deepened  con- 
viction that  you  are  not  preaching  *'  cun- 
ningly devised  fables,"  and  that  ^' there 
is  none  other  God  that  can  deliver  after 
this  sort."       The  three   happiest   men    and 


136  LETTERS   TO  A 

women  I   have  ever  seen   were   three   bed- 
ridden Christians — two  of  them  in  poverty. 

The  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
to  sick  persons  who  during  m.any  years  of 
health  and  opportunities  have  wholly  neg- 
lected it,  but  who  now  ask  for  it  for  the 
first  time,  is  a  matter  calling  for  great  care 
and  faithfulness.  It  will  be  a  blessed  result 
of  your  painstaking  visitation  and  teaching, 
if  such  neglect,  and  the  carelessness  and 
sin  which  have  led  to  it,  be  truly  repented 
of,  and  an  intelligent  and  hearty  desire  for 
Holy  Communion  be  awakened.  The  ex- 
amination prescribed  by  the  rubric  in  the 
Office  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  as  to 
repentance,  charity,  forgiveness  of  wrong 
suffered  or  done,  and  readiness  in  tlie  latter 
case  to  make  amends,  must  be  made  search- 
ingly  and  faithfully.  And  you  must  do 
your  utmost  to  dispel  the  notion  of  a  viati- 
cum,  as  if  to  *^  take  the  sacrament"  would 
of  itself  make  all  right.  Let  your  teaching 
as  to  the  design  and  efficacy  of  this  Holy 
Sacrament  be  such  as  that  you  are  clear 
of  the  guilt  of  such  a  superstitious  reception 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  137 

of  it  as  would  make  it  nothing  better  than 
extreme  unction. 

With  regard  to  the  use  of  the  Office  for 
the  Visitation  of  the  Sick  in  the  Prayer  Book, 
the  Church,  in  the  sixty-seventh  canon, 
leaves  the  minister,  *' if  he  be  a  preacher,'* 
at  full  liberty  either  to  use  it  or  to  *'  instruct 
and  comfort  "  ''  as  he  shall  think  most  need- 
ful and  convenient/'  Not  disputing  Dean 
Burgon's  estimate  of  its  excellence,  when 
he  writes,  "  It  seems  to  me  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  in  the  Prayer  Book ;  while  inquiry 
shows  that  it  is  perhaps  the  most  carefully 
revised  of  all ;  "*  I  cannot  recommend  so 
constant  a  use  of  any  portion  of  it,  either 
memoriter  or  from  book,  as  he  deems  advis- 
able, when,  not  insisting  indeed  upon  *'  a 
servile  adherence  to  it  from  end  to  end," 
but  allowing  omissions  and  substitutions, 
he  adds:  *'But  the  prescribed  form — from 
the  first  words  of  it,  down  to  the  end  of  the 
prayer,  *  Hear  us.  Almighty  and  most  merci- 
ful God  and  Saviour ;  '  and  again,  from  the 
words,  *  O  Saviour  of  the  world,'  to  the  end 

*  "Treatise  on  the  Pastoral  Office,"  p.  213. 


138  LETTERS  TO   A 

of  the  service — would,  it  is  apprehended, 
be  deviated  from  with  manifest  disadvan- 
tage."* 

I  submit  rather  that,  however  beautiful 
the  service,  it  is  not  desirable,  in  protracted 
cases,  to  repeat  the  same  office  frequently; 
and  that  a  spiritually  minded  pastor,  taking 
the  office  as  his  model,  may  wisely  adapt 
his  readings  and  his  prayers  to  the  indivi- 
dual case. 

To  whatever  decision  you  may  come,  always 
pray  with  the  sick  man,  even  when  he  is  too 
weak  to  listen  to  reading.  Apart  from  the 
higher  end — the  efficacy  of  prayer — a  short, 
earnest,  well-adapted  prayer  seldom  fails  to 
touch  the  sick  man. 

In  avoiding  the  slightest  approach  to  the 
auricular  confession  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
do  not  shrink  from  the  Scriptural  and  sober 
words  of  the  rubric — '*  H^re  shall  the  sick 
person  be  moved  to  make  a  special  co?i/ession  of 
his  sins,  if  he  feel  his  conscience  troubled  with 
any  weighty  matter''  Only  mark  the  words 
carefully.  They  are  a  provision  for  a  special 
*  "  Treatise  on  the  Pastoral  Office,"  pp.  213-4. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  139 

case — *^  If  he  feel  his  conscience  troubled  with 
any  weighty  matter^  But  they  are  not  to  be 
so  extended  and  strained  as  to  cover  habi- 
tual or  enforced  "confession  to  a  priest," 
as  "  a  direct  sacramental  ordinance  of  the 
Church  of  Christ;"  and  the  notion  "that 
to  be  duly  practised  it  must  be  secret  and 
compulsory,  numbering  all  remembered 
sins."*  For  such  a  system  of  confession — 
in  a  word,  for  The  Confessional — there  is, 
thank  God,  no  warrant  whatever  in  the 
Prayer  Book  of  the  Church  of  England. 
And  whatever  the  force  of  the  form  of 
absolution  which  follows  (into  which  it  is 
beyond  the  scope  of  these  letters  to  enter), 
it  is,  be  it  remembered,  attached  to  this  special 
case.  The  rubric  runs — "  After  which  con- 
fession^ the  priest  shall  absolve  him  (if  he 
humbly  and  heartily  desire  it)  after  this 
fashion." 

For  the  study  and  exposition  of  this  ab- 
solution I  must  refer  you  to  some  of  the 
many  writers  who  have    discussed  it  fully. 

*  Bishop  Wilberforce's  "  Addresses  to  the  Candidates  for 
Ordination,"  p.  113. 


I40  LETTERS   TO  A 

Among  others,  to  the  remarks  of  Dean 
Burgon,  in  the  treatise  to  which  I  have 
made  reference  in  this  letter.  I  quote  only 
the  words  of  Bishop  Wilberforce  :  * — ■ 

*^  It  is  plain,  first,  that  our  Church  never 
designed  that  the  ministers  of  God's  Word 
and  Sacraments  should  abdicate  that  which 
is  amongst  the  most  important  functions  of 
their  office — the  dealing  as  ministers  of 
God  with  the  consciences  of  men.  Yet,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  clear  that  there 
is  a  broad  distinction  between  her  intention 
herein  and  that  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 
Can,  then,  this  difference  be  referred  to  any 
guiding  principle  of  action  ?  It  seems  to 
me  that  it  may,  and  that  we  may  find  the 
difference  here.  The  object  of  the  Roman 
Communion  and  of  our  own  is  widely  dif- 
ferent, and  this  difference  at  once  affects  our 
several  practice.  The  object  of  the  Roman 
Church  is  to  bring  the  conscience  under  the 
power  of  the  priest,  to  make  him  the  judge 
to  whose  sentence  it  should  absolutely  defer. 
The   object   of  our   own    Church    is    so    to 

^   Pp.   112,   114-5. 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  141 

awaken,  enlighten,  and  strengthen  the  con- 
science, that  with  the  aid  of  Holy  Scripture, 
and  the  ordinary  public  ministrations  of 
God's  Word,  it  may  rightly  guide  the  in- 
dividual soul. 

*'Now   in    opposition    to    this    system" 
(that  of  Rome)  "  the  Church  of  England,  in 
exact  conformity,  as  we  maintain,  with  the 
Word   of  God,  and  the   teaching   and   the 
practice   of    the   primitive   Church,    allows 
private    confession    instead     of    enforcing 
it,  and   recommends  it   only  under  certain 
prescribed    circumstances    and    conditions, 
as  a  means   of  restoring  health   to   a  sick 
conscience,    instead   of    treating   the   habit 
of  confessing  as  the   state  of  health.     She 
treats  it  as  wise  men  treat  medical  aids,  as 
blessed    means    of    renovation,    stored    by 
God's   mercy   for   their    need   in   times    of 
sickness,    but   still   as   not   meant   for,  and 
not  wholly  compatible  with,  a  settled  habit 
of  strong   health.     And   this   difference   of 
view  is  founded  upon  a  great  doctrinal  dif- 
ference, as   to   the   place   which  confession 
occupies    in   the  new    kingdom   of  Christ. 


142  LETTERS   TO  A 

The  Church  of  England  does  not  treat  It 
as  a  separate  (oi^  dinance  of  Christ,  endowed 
with  a  special  sacramental  grace  of  its  own  ; 
but  she  regards  it  as  a  permitted  '  opening 
of  grief,'  as  a  *  lightening'  of  a  'burden,' 
as  in  no  way  bringing  any  special  pardon 
or  absolution  to  the  penitent  over  and  above 
that  which  he  might  equally  obtain  by 
general  confession  to  Almighty  God  and 
public  absolution  In  the  congregation,  but 
only  as  a  spiritual  confidence  which  might 
be  entrusted  to  any  brother  Christian,  but 
which  it  Is  most  natural  and  best  to  commit 
to  the  physician  of  souls,  as  having  more 
experience  of  such  cases,  and  as  being 
specially  provided  by  God  with  grace  for 
their  treatment  and  relief." 

In  dismissing  the  subject  of  the  Visitation 
of  the  Sick,  let  me  draw  your  attention  to 
the  wise  direction  of  the  Church:  **And  if 
he  hath  not  before  disposed  of  his  goods, 
let  him  then  be  admonished  to  make  his 
will,  and  to  declare  his  debts,  what  he 
oweth,  and  what  Is  owing  unto  him  ;  for 
the   better   discharging   of  his   conscience, 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN. 


143 


and  the  quietness  of  his  executors."  Many 
a  widow,  and  many  a  family,  have  had  to 
smart  for  the  neglect  of  this  duty  on  the 
part  of  the  dying,  where  obedience  to  the 
Church's  suggestion  would  have  saved 
much  confusion,  if  not  protracted  litigation, 
heavy  loss,  and  bitter  family  strife. 

Yours  faithfully, 

John  C.  Miller. 


VIII. 

The   Work  of  the  Ministry, —  Visitation.     {Con- 
tinued}) 

11.  Visitation  of  the  Afflicted. 
III.  General  Visitation. 

My  Dear  Brother, — Never  will  you  be 
doing  more  directly  the  work  of  a  pastor 
than  in  the  Visitation  of  the  Afflicted,  And 
seldom,  if  ever,  will  the  faithful  and  loving 
discharge  of  your  duty  bring  you  a  happier 
or  more  immediate  reward.  The  afflicted 
are  very  grateful  for  prompt  pastoral  sym- 
pathy. If  in  the  higher  or  middle  class  of 
society,  they  will  receive  calls  or  letters  of 
condolence  in  abundance — in  some  cases 
too  conventional  to  be  of  much  value. 
From  yoic  they  should  have  neither  call  nor 
letter  of  a  nlerely  conventional  character. 
Let  me  hope   that  you  cherish  habitually  a 

lO 


146  LETTERS   TO  A 

Spirit  of  true,  practical  sympathy  with  your 
people  ;  a  sympathy  which  prompts  you  to 
pray  at  home  for  all  who  are  stricken  with 
sorrow.  This  will  soon  show  itself,  and  be 
recognised  as  one  of  your  characteristics. 
So  that,  when  you  enter  the  home  of  mourn- 
ing or  pen  a  few  words  of  consolation,  they 
will  be  felt  to  come  from  your  heart,  and 
will  reach  the  hearts  of  those  whose  home 
death  has  darkened,  or  who  are  smarting 
under  some  other  form  of  trial.  It  is  true 
that  sympathy  can  do  but  little  ;  yet  who 
among  us  that  has  known  tribulation  has 
not  felt  that  this  little  seems  much  ?  Whether 
it  be  the  grief  of  husband  for  wife,  or  of  wife 
for  husband,  of  parent  for  child,  or  of  child 
for  parent,  whether  it  be  family  disgrace  or 
financial  disaster,  hasten  to  show  your  sym- 
pathy. 

Nor  only  so.  Remember  that  their  day 
of  sorrow  is  your  opportunity.  The  season 
of  affliction  is  to  them  a  season  of  special 
and  solemn  responsibility.  If  worldlings, 
it  may  be  to  them  as  it  was  to  Manasseh : 
**When  he  was   in    affliction,  he   besought 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  147 

the  Lord  his  God,  and  humbled  himself 
greatly  before  the  God  of  his  fathers,  and 
prayed  unto  Him :  and  He  was  intreated  of 
him.''  Sorrow  may  soften  where  sermons 
have  failed.  For  God  preaches  by  provi- 
dences. Sorrows  are  among  His  most  strik- 
ing sermons.  Point  out  lovingly  that  this 
trial  has  its  message.  And  while  the  bleed- 
ing heart  is  painfully  sensible  of  the  in- 
sufficiency of  the  world's  consolations,  pour 
in  the  balm  of  the  consolations  of  God. 

Depend  upon  it,  you  miss  one  of  your 
most  golden  opportunities  when  you  neglect 
your  people  in  their  times  of  trouble.  The 
metal  is,  more  or  less  softened  to  your  hand. 
There  will  be  cases  ,from  time  to  time,  which 
will  need  all  your  skill.  *'  It  is  the  glory  of 
God  to  conceal  a  thing."  And  sometimes 
the  form  in  which  trial  comes  is  so  very- 
trying — so  very  trying  because  so  peculiarly 
dark — that  you  will  find  it  most  hard  to  deal 
with  a  spirit  of  rebellion,  a  spirit  unable  to 
believe  that  such  a  blow  can  have  been  dealt 
by  a  just  God,  still  less  by  a  loving  Father. 
There  are  cases   which  are  trying  even  to 


148  LETTERS   TO  A 

our  own  faith.  We  can  feel  how  they  must 
test  to  the  uttermost  the  submission  even  of 
God's  children ;  much  more  of  those  who 
are  not  spiritually  minded,  and  by  whom  the 
precious  truth  of  His  Fatherhood  is  not 
grasped  by  personal  experience. 

The  mystery  of  human  pain  and  sorrow 
must  be  great  and  trying  at  all  times.  It 
is  so  to  you  and  to  me.  But  there  are  times 
when  it  presses  very  sorely,  even  as  we  look 
on  the  sufferings  of  others.  We  must  not 
deal  hardly  and  harshly  with  those  upon 
whom  its  pressure  is  falling  with  peculiar 
weight,  and  in  some  of  its  rarer  forms.  To 
make  light  of  it — to  speak  reproachfully  and 
reprovingly — is  not  our  duty,  as,  certainly, 
it  is  not  our  true  policy.  Show  that  you, 
too,  feel  the  difficulty.  Sympathise  with  it. 
Let  your  teachings  not  be  on  the  lines  of 
explanation,  but  rather  of  faith.  "  Shall 
not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right  ?  " 
**  He  doeth  all  things  well."  This  is  not 
punitive  vengeance,  but,  if  we  will  receive 
and  use  it  aright,  fatherly  chastisement — 
not  for  destruction,  but  for  profit. 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN,  149 

Your  great  weapon  is  prayer — prayer  with 
and  for  the  suffering.  Suggest  that  you 
kneel  down  together.  In  loving  pleadings 
pour  out  your  heart  to  the  God  of  all  grace 
and  of  all  comfort.  Commend  them  to  Him. 
Ask  with  them  and  for  them  the  faith,  the 
resignation,  the  comfort  they  need.  You 
will  seldom  find  that  such  prayer  has  failed 
of  all  immediate  effects.  And  when  those 
whom  you  have  thus  visited  and  comforted 
come  forth  from  their  houses  of  mourning, 
and  listen  again  to  your  sermons,  they  will 
listen  as  they  have  never  listened  before. 
Their  very  gratitude  to  you  will  be  sancti- 
fied. Having  proved  yourself  a  true  pastor 
out  of  the  pulpit,  you  will  be  to  them  a  more 
acceptable  and  useful  preacher  in  the  pulpit. 

These  manifestations  of  practical  sympathy 
must  not  be  confined  to  the  well-to-do  among 
your  people,  the  classes  whose  social  position 
alone  may  seem  to  entitle  them  to  courtesy 
and  attention.  Rather  must  you  be  on  your 
guard  against  even  the  appearance  of  being 
more  prompt  and  more  earnest  with  your 
wealthy  and  well-to-do  parishioners  than  with 


I50  LETTERS   TO  A 

your  humble  tradesmen,  your  labourers,  and 
your  poor.  Beware  of  pastoral  toadyism.  If 
the  widowed  husband  or  wife,  the  fatherless  or 
motherless  children,  or  the  father  and  mother 
whose  darling  has  been  reft  away  by  death, 
be  in  your  back  streets  or  your  cottages,  your 
consolatory  words  are  as  urgently  called  for, 
and  will  be  as  gratefully  appreciated,  as  by 
the  afflicted  among  other  classes.  And  often 
prejudice  will  be  dissipated,  and  bitter  feel- 
ings against  the  Church  and  Church  parsons 
softened,  as  they  find  that  they  are  not 
neglected,  but  that  you  recognise  that  their 
wound  is  as  deep,  and  their  smart  as  sore, 
as  are  those  felt  by  the  great  folks  at  *'  the 
Hall,"  and  by  the  afflicted  among  the  well- 
to-do  classes.  That  which  you  have  long 
tried  to  bring  about  by  your  own  visitations 
and  through  lady  visitors,  and  Scripture 
readers,  and  Bible-women,  and  by  shoals 
of  tracts — namely,  to  bring  this  man  to  fill 
his  vacant  place  in  church — is  at  once  ac- 
complished, because  the  parson  found  time 
to  come  and  see  him  in  his  trouble,  to  speak 
words  of  comfort,  and  to  offer  words  of  prayer. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  151 

To  qualify  you  for  this  department  of  your 
pastoral  duties,  you  will,  in  God's  times 
and  in  God's  ways,  have  your  own  trials. 
He  will  make  you  to  pass  through  the 
training-school  of  affliction,  that  you  may 
learn  your  lesson ;  not  from  manuals  of 
Pastoral  Theology,  but  by  experience.  Thus 
will  you  know  the  heart  of  a  widower  when 
* '  the  desire  of  "  his  ^ '  eyes ' '  is  taken  from  him , 
or  the  darling  from  his  nursery,  or  the  son 
or  daughter  whom  he  has  seen  growing  up 
in  his  home,  for  whom  many  a  hope  has 
been  cherished  and  many  a  plan  laid.  You 
will  **  be  able  to  comfort"  others  **by  the 
comfort  wherewith"  yourselves  ^'are  com- 
forted of  God."  The  fire  of  the  furnace 
shall  make  the  vessel  more  fit  for  the 
Master's  use,  and  your  sorrowing  people 
shall  recognise  the  reality,  the  adaptation, 
and  the  tenderness  of  your  consolations  ;  the 
utterances,  not  of  conventionalism,  nor  pro- 
fessionalism, nor  theory,  but,  of  experience. 
For  this,  as  for  other  reasons,  are  the  ministers 
of  the  New  Testament,  like  the  priests  of  the 
Old  Testament,  *'  taken  from  among  men." 


152  LETTERS   TO  A 

III.  General  Visitation. — We  have  yet 
to  deal  with  the  most  difficult  branches  of 
Visitation — Ordinary  Pastoral  Visits  in  times 
of  health,  and  Social  Visiting  as  guests  at  the 
tables  of  your  people. 

In  reference  to  the  former,  the  pastor  of  a 
parish  of  moderate  area  and  population  hasf 
obviously  a  great  advantage  over  the  in- 
cumbent of  a  parish  which  numbers  many 
thousands.  The  former  needs  only  diligence 
and  system  ;  the  latter  cannot  hope  even  to 
know  each  and  every  one  of  his  parishioners 
personally;  still  less  to  be  a  house-going 
pastor  to  the  extent  which  he  desires.  It  is 
here  chiefly  that  the  pressure  is  felt  by  an 
over-weighted  pastor.  He  feels  that  he 
ought  to  be  no  stranger  in  any  house  in  his 
parish — that  not  one  resident  in  it  should  be 
able  to  say,  **  My  clergyman  has  never  been 
into  my  house.  I  never  see  him  but  in  the 
pulpit,  or  when  I  am  sick  or  in  sorrow." 
But,  were  visiting  his  only  duty,  this  would 
in  some  cases  be  impossible. 

Should  your  lot  be  cast  in  one  of  these 
vast  parishes,  do  your  very  utmost  in  this 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  153 

matter.  Let  not  the  hopelessness  of  doing 
all  tempt  you  to  do  nothing.  And  in  doing 
what  you  can,  let  your  visits  have  in  them  as 
much  as  possible  of  the  pastoral  elejne^it.  Be 
not  a  mere  morning-caller  or  a  hanger-on 
at  five-o'clock  tea.  There  is  great  danger 
lest  your  visits  should  degenerate  into  mere 
conventionalism — or  worse,  into  mere  chat 
and  gossip.  And  the  danger  is  the  greater 
because  very  many  who  will  complain  that 
you  never  visit  your  people,  that  they  see 
little  or  nothing  of  you  out  of  the  pulpit,  are 
not  desiderating  pastoral  visits,  but  only  the 
attention  of  a  call. 

I  do  not  deny  that  something  is  gained 
by  the  fact  that  your  people  become  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  you,  although  the 
visit  may  give  no  fair  opening  for  such  con- 
versation as  you  desire.  You  may  feel  re- 
gretfully, and  perhaps  self-reproachfully,  as 
the  street  door  is  shut  behind  you  on  leaving, 
that  you  have  done  no  good,  that  not  a 
word  has  been  spoken  for  edification.  Your 
pastoral  visit  has  been  such  in  name  only — 
little,    if  anything,    better   than   a  morning 


154  LETTERS   TO  A 

call.  They  are  satisfied,  but  you  are  not. 
Yet  something  is  gained  towards  future  use- 
fulness. Their  hour  of  sickness  and  sorrow 
will  come.  When  it  comes,  they  will  seldom 
care  much  even  for  their  own  clergyman,  if 
he  is  known  to  them  only  in  public.  But  if 
they  have  known  you  personally  before  their 
affliction,  they  will  look  for  and  receive  you 
now,  when  they  want,  not  a  conventional 
call  but,  pastoral  sympathy.  It  is  a  great 
thing  not  to  be  a  stranger  in  their  houses 
when  you  are  the  person  to  whom  they 
naturally  turn  for  words  of  consolation. 
Therefore,  although  your  general  visits  may 
not  be  all  you  desire — and  with  some  of  the 
people  it  is  very  difficult  to  make  them 
spiritually  profitable — they  will,  at  any  rate, 
have  broken  down  shyness  and  prevented 
estrangement.  They  are  accustomed  to  you 
and  you  to  them.  The  door  is  open  for 
the  pastor,  as  such,  into  the  house  of 
mourning. 

But  it  is  most  desirable  that,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, you  should  never  let  them  forget,  even 
in  your  most  friendly  visits,  that  you  are  a 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  155 

minister  of  God  and  their  pastor.  Do  not 
forget  it  yourself.  I  know  that,  in  this 
matter  of  visitation,  men  differ  in  gifts 
qualifications,  common  sense,  and  tact,  as 
much  as  they  differ  in  their  gifts  as  preachers- 
Some  men  have  a  felicitous  and  most  envi- 
able gift  for  pastoral  intercourse.  They  can 
seize  opportunities,  direct  conversation  into 
profitable  channels,  check  frivolity,  and 
speak  the  word  in  season.  Others  are  shy, 
reticent,  awkward,  longing  to  escape  from 
mere  empty  talk,  but  lacking  tact  and 
courage.  They  feel  that  they  ought  to 
have  made  an  effort  for  **  speech"  "with 
grace,"  *' seasoned  with  salt."  They  are 
full  of  self-reproach  that,  however  much 
they  have  desired  it,  they  have  left  no  pro- 
fitable word  behind  them.  In  praying  and 
striving  for  this  gift,  be  simple,  be  natural. 
Get  rid  of  a  mere  conventional  gravity  and 
attempted  solemnity.  Be  genial.  Don't 
walk  into  the  house  as  if  you  must  banish 
every  smile,  and  stiffen  into  a  melancholy- 
looking  official,  or  an  undertaker  come  to 
measure  some  one  for  his  coffin.     If  there 


156  LETTERS  TO  A 

are  children,  don't  drive  them  upstairs  or 
into  corners,  as  frightened  by  a  smiieless  man 
in  black,  but  give  them  a  sunny  look  and  a 
cheery  word.  Be  a  child  again,  and  not  a 
starched  cleric. 

Passing  from  the  children,  let  me  extend 
to  the  higher  and  middle  classes  what  Dean 
Burgon  says  so  wisely  of  pastoral  inter- 
course with  *'  our  humbler  brethren  "  : — 

*'  It  may  be  laid  down  confidently,  that 
to  talk  religion  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  the 
invariable  object,  or  even  as  an  essential 
part,  of  a  pastoral  visit.  Nothing  is  more 
abhorrent  to  good  taste  than  the  systematic 
attempt  to  warp  whatever  is  said  into  some- 
thing religious.  If  a  man  once  falls  into  this 
practice,  he  will  find  it  beget  a  corresponding 
method  in  his  people, — who  will  pay  him 
back  in  the  same  sorry  coin  ;  and  some  day, 
when  he  is  bent  on  something  practical,  will 
keep  on  parrying  every  honest  thrust  by 
forced  allusions  to  Scripture,  whereby  his 
intercourse  with  them  will  become  wholly 
unreal  and  unprofitable.  The  younger  folk 
will  acquire    hypocritical   ways,    and   learn 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  157 

to  hate  religion,  of  which  they  will  in- 
fallibly consider  this  a  fair  sample.  The 
shepherd  of  the  flock,  instead  of  being- 
the  apostle  of  cheerfulness, — the  appointed 
guide  and  friend  in  all  things, — will  be  as- 
sociated with  images  of  restraint  and  gloom. 
After  all,  we  do  not  behave  so  in  the  daily 
intercourse  of  private  life.  Why  then  in  our 
^^  intercourse  with  our  humbler  brethren  ?  "  * 
Again  :  '*  Few  things  are  more  distressing 
than  the  artificial  tone  of  intercourse  which 
ensues  if  the  presence  of  the  clergyman  is 
the  signal  for  religious  conversation  to  com- 
mence. A  moment  ago,  the  household  were 
engaged  in  something  secular:  a  moment 
hence,  they  will  be  so  engaged  again. 
Meantime,  because  he  was  seen  approach- 
ing, the  Bible,  forsooth,  was  reached  down, 
and  the  tract  hunted  for,  and  every  face  as- 
sumed an  expression  of  restraint.  All  this 
is  fraught  with  mischief.  The  office  of 
religion,  as  we  know,  is  to  sanctify  the 
business  of  the  day,  not  to  set  it  aside :  to 
hallow  labour,  not  to  supersede  it.     More- 

*  "  Treatise  on  the  Pastoral  Office,"  p.  228. 


158  LETTERS   TO   A 

over,  whatever  disconnects  us  from  the  prac- 
tical life  of  those  to  whom  we  minister  is  an 
evil :  an  evil  to  them,  for  it  gives  them  a 
mistaken  notion  of  our  aims ;  an  evil  to  us, 
for  it  conceals  from  us  those  occupations, 
habits,  trials,  desires,  which  we  have  to  cope 
^  with  and  to  address."  * 

I  will  not  attempt  to  lay  down  a  general 
rule  of  duty  in  reference  to  dinner  or  even- 
ing parties.  It  is  very  undesirable  that  you 
should  exhibit  the  religion  of  Christ  as  un- 
social, ungenial,  or  ascetic.  And  there  is 
doubtless  much  truth  in  the  observation  that 
if  Christian  ministers  were  never  to  enter 
into  general  society,  a  wholesome,  restrain- 
ing, and  elevating  influence  would  be  with- 
drawn. But  there  is  great  wisdom  in  the 
cautions  of  Richard  Cecil : — 

*'What  passes  on  these  occasions  too  often 
savours  of  this  world.  We  become  one 
among  our  hearers.  They  come  to  church 
on  Sunday,  and  we  preach ;  the  week  comes 
round  again,  and  its  nonsense  with  it.  Now 
if  a  minister  were  what  he  should  be,  the 

*  "  Treatise  on  the  Pastoral  Office,"  p.  229. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  159 

people  would  feel  it.  They  would  not  at- 
tempt to  introduce  this  dawdling,  silly, 
diurnal  chat.  When  we  countenance  this, 
it  looks  as  though — *  On  the  Sunday  I  am 
ready  to  do  my  business  ;  and  in  the  week 
you  may  do  yours.''  This  lowers  the  tone 
of  what  I  say  on  the  Sabbath.  It  forms  a 
sad  comment  on  my  preaching.  I  have 
traced,  I  think,  some  of  the  evil  that  lies  at 
the  root  of  this.  We  are  more  concerned 
to  be  thought  gentlemen  than  to  be  felt 
as  ministers.  Now,  being  desirous  to  be 
thought  a  man  who  has  kept  good  company, 
strikes  at  the  root  of  that  rough  work — the 
bringing  of  God  into  His  own  world.  It  is 
hard  and  rough  work  to  bring  God  into  His 
own  world.  To  talk  of  a  Creator  and  Pre- 
server and  Redeemer  is  an  outrage  on  the 
feelings  of  most  companies."* 

**  Christ  is  an  example  to  us  of  entering 
into  mixed  society.  But  our  imitation  of 
Him  herein  must  admit  of  restrictions.  A 
feeble  man  must  avoid  danger.  If  any  one 
could  go  into  society  as  Christ  did,  then  let 

*  "  Remains,"  edit.  1876,  p.  139. 


i6o  LETTERS   TO  A 

him  go :  let  him  attend  marriage  feasts  and 
Pharisees'  houses.''* 

In  our  desire  to  be  social  and  genial,  and 
to  make  ourselves  agreeable,  we  must  not 
forget  that  gravity  should  be  our  charac- 
teristic. Nor  must  we  allow  the  desire  to 
*'  tell  a  good  story  "  lead  us  to  be  jesters 
and  buffoons,  or  even  triflers.  There  is  no 
sin  in  moderately  enjoying  **  pleasant  food." 
It  is  as  pleasant  to  us  as  to  other  men.  But 
beware  of  such  enjoyment  as  to  expose  you 
to  the  charge  of  being  **  a  man  who  likes  a 
good  dinner  and  a  glass  of  wine,"  as  those 
words  are  commonly  understood.  In  the 
great  majority  of  cases,  a  minister  of  Christ, 
on  looking  back  upon  a  large  dinner  party 
with  its  luxurious  and  costly  fare,  or  an 
evening  party  with  its  inanities — I  must 
add,  not  seldom,  upon  the  songs  sung — 
finds  little  or  nothing  which  he  can  treat 
with  satisfaction.  Late  hours  spent  in  frivo- 
lous talk  and  noisy  mirth  will  soon  tell  upon 
your  spiritual  life.  But  it  is  difficult  to  lay 
down  rules.     You  must  be  left  to  your  Bible, 

■^  "  Remains/'  edit.  1876,  p.  214. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  i6i 

to  the  example  of  your  Master,  to  conscience, 
and  to  experience.  It  is,  to  a  great  extent, 
a  question  of  degree,  and  also  of  your  own 
3^  temperament,  self-control,  and  gifts. 

It  will  be  no  bad  rule  for  us,  in  our  social  life 
and  in  our  recreations,  never  to  be  such  men 
as  that  our  people  will  feel  that  we  their 
pastors  are  not  the  teachers,  counsellors,  and 
comforters,  whomi  they  would  desire  to  sum- 
mon in  hours  of  sickness  and  sorrow,  or 
upon  their  beds  of  death.  At  such  seasons 
.  the  veriest  worldling  among  them  will  feel, 
if  he  cares  for  the  presence  of  a  Christian 
minister  at  all,  that  a  mere  diner-out  or 
morning-caller — a  mere  ladies'  man — a  good 
joker  and  teller  of  a  story — is  not  the  pastor 
he  would  care  to  call  in  when  he  needs  a 
pastor's  spiritual  help. 

The  same  spirit  of  Christian  faithfulness 
and  consistency  must  be  your  guide  in  the 
matter  of  Recreation.  To  say  that  a  clergy- 
man is  never  to  take  a  cricket  bat  into  his 
hand  after  his  ordination,  never  to  play  a 
game  at  croquet  or  lawn  tennis,  is  surely 
to  take  an  extreme  view.     The  opposite  ex- 

1 1 


1 62  LETTERS  TO  A 

treme,  and  a  most  pernicious  one,  is  that  a 
young-  clergyman  should  be  at  every  archery 
meeting  in  the  district,  in  every  croquet 
party  in  the  parish.  You  have  to  remember 
that  even  ^^  lawful''  things  are  not  always 
*'  expedient''  and  that  the  question  of  degree 
is  important.  To  urge  no  other  considera- 
tion, your  people  should  never  have  reason 
for  concluding  that  your  time  is  of  little 
value,  or  that  amusement,  even  though  un- 
objectionable in  its  nature,  becomes  a  chief 
occupation  and  an  end.  If  you  err  at  all,  lean 
always  to  the  side  of  moderation  and  gravity. 
Strictness  becomes  your  office  better  than 
laxity.  '*  Giving  no  offence  in  anything, 
that  the  ministry  be  not  blamed."  It  has 
been  most  truly  said,  *'  If  a  minister  takes 
one  step  into  the  world,  his  hearers  will  take 
two." 

In  connection  with  this  subject  of  social 
visiting  and  general  intercourse  with  your 
people,  I  feel  bound  to  offer  you,  as  a  young 
minister,  grave  and  earnest  caution  upon  a 
delicate  point,  more  particularly  if  you  are 
unmarried ;  and  this  not  merely  by  reiter- 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  163 

ating  St.  Paul's  caution  —  '*  the  younger 
(women)  as  sisters  with  all  purity" — but  by 
adding,  "  with  circumspection  and  gravity." 
On  this  point  a  caution,  always  useful  and 
even  necessary,  is  doubly  so  in  an  age  in 
which,  to  a  mournful  and  perilous  extent, 
fastness  is  characteristic  of  so  many  young 
women,  even  in  our  congregations.  The 
loss  of  self-respect  and  modest  womanly 
demeanour,  which,  to  so  great  an  extent, 
allows  and  encourages  undue  freedom  of 
language  and  manner  on  the  part  of  young 
men  in  their  social  intercourse  with  young 
women,  has  infected  the  Church,  not  the 
world  only.  The  young  clergyman  is] in 
danger  of  too  great  familiarity  both  of  con- 
duct and  language  with  younger  women  of 
the  middle  or  higher  class.  They,  in  their 
turn,  are  often  very  susceptible  and — truth 
must  be  written — sometimes  very  silly. 
The  young  clergyman  is  kindly  received — 
in  some  cases,  a  set  is  made  at  him.  He 
is  admired,  flattered,  petted.  Gradually  he 
becomes  a  morning  caller,  an  intimate  in 
the  home,  a  lounger,  a  joker.     He  begins 


t64  letters   to  A 

to  call  daughters  by  their  Christian  names  ; 
and  flirtation  ensues.     In  some  cases  it  is 
well  if  he  does  not  thoughtlessly,  or  out  of 
sheer  vanity,  encourage  expectations  in  hearts 
not  proof  against  familiar  attention  from  an 
educated  young  man  of  good  social  position, 
and  with    the   prestige  which   his    spiritual 
office   gives    him,    in    women's    eyes    more 
especially.     Never  be  a  clerical  flirt.     Never, 
even  by  thoughtlessness,  arouse  in  a  woman's 
heart   expectations   which    are    groundless. 
That  some  women  are   foolish   enough   to 
cherish    them    without    warrant — that    you 
have  never  mea7it  anything — will  be  no  ex- 
cuse for  you.     Never  lay  yourself  open  to 
the    charge    of    flirtation    or    of    heartless 
trifling-.     And,    to    avoid  this    mischief,  re- 
member that  in  no  direction  does  your  con- 
duct  need   more   care  than  in  your  social 
intercourse  with  the  young  women  of  your 
flock.     I  am  not  suggesting  that,  under  the 
influence    of  a  vain   self-consciousness,you 
should  live  and  talk  as  under  the  fear  that 
every  young  woman  will  fall  in    love  with 
you,  if  you  are  not  very  careful ;  but  I  am 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  165 

urging  that  you  should  be  to  young  women 
a  grave  Christian  minister  and  an  honour- 
able Christian  gentleman. 

Yours  faithfully^ 

John  C.  Miller. 


IX. 

The  Work  of  the  Ministry. —  Visitation.     {Con- 
tin2t,ed) 

III.  General  Visitatiox — The  Poor. 

My  Dear  Brother, — "  Prayer  and  kindly 
intercourse  with  the  poor  are  the  two  great 
safeguards  of  spiritual  life  ;  it  is  more  than 
food  and  raiment." 

Thus  wrote  a  good  and  great  man,  whose 
time  and  strength  were  devoted,  for  the 
most  part,  to  duties  which  did  not  lead  him 
necessarily  to  the  homes  of  the  poor — Dr. 
Arnold.* 

The  testimony  comes  with  peculiar  weight 
from  one  whose  busy  intellectual  life  was 
sanctified  and  elevated  by  an  inner  life  of 
high  purpose,  noble  aim,  and  Christian  self- 
consecration.  And  if,  as  we  doubt  not,  his 
testimony  be  true,  the  Christian  pastor  finds 

*  Dean  Stanley's  "  Life  of  Dr.  Arnold,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  56. 


1 68  LETTERS   TO  A 

in  his  dilig-ent  and  kindly  visitation  of  his 
poor,  not  only  a  duty  but,  a  means  of  foster- 
ing and  developing  his  own  spiritual  life. 

It  is  to  \kiQ^  general  visitation  of  your  poorer 
parishioners  that  I  now  call  your  attention. 

It  is  of  the  first  importance  that  this  be 
carried  out  in  a  right  spirit  and  manner. 
You  must  not  be  a  spiritual  inquisitor,  nor 
a  mere  statistician.  The  old  saying,  that 
an  Englishman's  house  is  his  castle,  should 
always  be  borne  in  mind.  Knock  at  his 
door.  Lift  his  latch — the  latch  of  the  poor- 
est— with  courtesy  and  delicacy.  Don't 
rush  in  rudely,  because  he  is  not  a  squire, 
or  a  tenant  farmer,  or  a  tradesman.  Re- 
spect his  home,  though  it  be  but  a  cottage 
or  a  hovel.  Avoid  mealtimes  and  the  time 
in  which  the  wife  is  getting  a  meal  ready. 
Avoid  house-cleaning  days  and  hours. 
Dean  Burgon  speaks  of  "the  fatal  error 
(for  such  it  is)  of  calling  at  the  wrong  time." 
It  is  a  great  mistake  to  keep  all  your  courtesy 
and  consideration  for  the  well-to-do  and 
the  great.  Be  sure  of  this ;  the  poor  soon 
recognize  and  appreciate  a  gentleman — not 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  169 

the  lacquered  sham  of  a  mere  conventional 
gentleman, — but  the  true  gentleman,  whose 
refinement  is  shown,  not  by  an  elaborate 
condescension  but,  by  delicate  considera- 
tion for  the  rights  and  feelings  of  others. 
In  your  desire  to  be  at  your  ease  with  them, 
don't  be  rough  and  rude.  *'  He  that  will  be 
respected  must  respect."* 

I  have  said  that  you  are  not  to  go  in  the 
spirit  of  a  mere  statisticia^i.  You  may  want, 
for  your  own  convenience  or  for  public  pur- 
poses, to  tabulate  certain  particulars ;  but, 
as  a  rule,  avoid  taking  memoranda  in  their 
presence.  Reserve  these  until  you  are  out 
of  sight.  This  hint  applies  particularly  to 
large  parishes,  in  which  you  may  wish  to 
tabulate  population,  number  of  families  in  a 
house,  number  of  children  in  a  family,  and 
many  other  points  of  inquiry.  In  such 
cases  avoid  all  approach  to  inspection  or 
officialism.  Never  lose  the  spirit  and  the 
manner  of  a  friend.  ''  Let  a  circumstance 
also  be  stated  in  passing,"  writes  Dean 
Burgon,  "  which  is  perhaps  sometimes  lost 

*  George  Herbert's  "  Country  Parson,"  ch.  xxviii. 


170  LETTERS   TO  A 

sight  of  in  visiting  persons  of  the  humbler 
class;  namely,  that  their  feelings  are  quite  as 
acute  as  ours.  They  do  not  indeed  feel  what 
we  feel,  but  they  feel  as  we  do.  They  have  a 
code  of  their  own,  which  there  is  no  danger 
of  our  violating,  if  we  be  but  sincerely 
desirous  not  to  hurt  their  feelings."* 

You  must  be  a  good  listener.  Some  of 
your  old  folk  will  sorely  try  your  patience 
by  diffuseness ;  sometimes  by  giving  you 
more  of  their  early  history  than  you  care 
to  hear  ;  sometimes  by  over-minuteness  in 
telling  their  present  troubles.  You  see  and 
feel  that  their  tale  might  be  told  more 
briefly,  and  that  much  need  not  be  told  at 
all.  But  often  you  must  bear  it.  You 
must  not  appear  impatient.  It  is  a  pleasure 
and  a  relief  to  them  to  pour  it  all  out  into 
your  ears.  You  must  largely  condescend  to 
their  infirmity  by  being  a  good  listener. 
They  will  be  greatly  drawn  to  you  by  your 
patient  sympathy. 

You   will   not   understand   me   to  extend 
this  patience  to  gossip  about  other  people 

*  Page  236. 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  171 

in  your  parish.  Against  this  you  must  set 
your  face  and  close  your  ears.  You  may  be 
tempted  to  encourage  it — or,  at  least,  to 
allow  it — under  the  pretence  that  it  is  well 
for  you  to  know  as  much  as  you  can  about 
everybody  in  your  parish ;  and  that  in  this 
way  you  may  pick  up  information  which 
may  be  useful  to  you.  But  such  a  mode  of 
picking  up  information  is  vicious  in  prin- 
ciple.    The  end  will  not  justify  the  means. 

You  will  probably  be  assisted  in  this  part 
of  your  pastoral  duties  by  lay  helpers. 
Your  District  Visitors  will  go  as  your  fellow- 
workers  and,  in  a  sense  and  measure,  your 
representatives.  Teach  and  train  them  to 
go  in  the  spirit  and  manner  now  recom- 
mended to  yourself.  Not  as  superior  beings, 
not  as  inquisitors,  critics,  censors,  or  statis- 
ticians ;  but  with  sympathy,  tenderness, 
courtesy,  consideration.  What  is  wanted  is 
not  officialism,  but  manly  and  womanly 
sympathy.  And,  underlying  all  and  domi- 
nating all,  not  mere  neighbourly  kindness 
and  philanthropy,  not  a  mere  desire  to  set 
things  socially,  domestically,  and  physically 


172  LETTERS   TO  A 

right  in  your  parish,  but  to  win,  and  warn, 
and  counsel,  and  comfort,  and  build  up,  by 
spiritual  work,  as  a  spiritual  friend. 

You  may  be  surprised  to  hear  me  say 
that  it  is  sometimes  possible  to  over-visit. 
This  may  seldom  apply  to  your  own  visits, 
but,  unless  I  am  mistaken,  it  applies  to 
some  District  Visitors.  They  drop  in  too 
often.  They  make  themselves  too  cheap. 
Sometimes  they  may  even  be  troublesome  ; 
just  as  tracts  may  be  left  too  often,  and  be- 
come a  drug  in  their  homes. 

I  pass  on  to  a  subject  of  great  importance 
and  difficulty  closely  connected  with  your 
visitation  of  your  poor — a  department  of  our 
work  which,  after  forty  years'  experience 
amid  large  populations,  I  regard  to-day  as 
one  of  the  most  difticult  duties  which  we  are 
called  to  perform — Temporal  Relief,  as 
administered  by  ourselves  or  by  our  agents. 

The  subject  is  attracting  great  attention 
at  this  time,  and  there  is  some  danger  of 
our  rushing  from  one  extreme  to  the  other. 
I  have  long  been  convinced  that  it  requires 
very   careful  and  very  grave  consideration. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  173 

Our  indiscriminate  almsgiving  and  many  of 
our  parish  doles  have  wrought  great  social 
mischief  in  pauperizing  our  people.  The 
waste  of  the  money  has  been  the  least  part 
of  the  evil.  Far  worse  has  been  the  social 
mischief,  in  the  weakening  or  destroying  the 
sense  of  independence  and  self-help  ;  worse 
still  the  premium  upon  self-indulgence,  im- 
providence, and  drunkenness.  I  shall  never 
forget  one  scene  in  my  later  parochial  ex- 
perience. At  a  meeting  held  in  one  of  my 
school-rooms,  some  few  years  since,  one  of 
my  leading  parishioners,  who  devotes  much 
time  and  much  of  the  thought  of  an  intelli- 
gent and  vigorous  mind  to  social  questions, 
gave  utterance,  before  an  audience  of  poor 
folk  and  of  working  men,  to  the  conviction 
that  they  too,  like  those  in  the  well-to-do 
classes,  should,  in  time  of  full  work  and 
wages,  '*  lay  up  for  a  rainy  day."  He  was 
met  by  derisive  hisses  and  howls.  *'  What ! ' ' 
thought  I  to  myself,  ''have  our  charities, 
our  doles,  and  our  relief-tickets,  brought  us 
to  this?" 

A  further  mischief  has  resulted,  and  one 


174  LETTERS  TO  A 

which  bears  directly  upon  our  spiritual 
work.  One  of  my  lady- visitors  was  offering 
a  poor  woman  a  few  words  of  spiritual 
counsel  about  herself  and  her  family. 
*' Oh  !  "  said  the  woman,  with  enough  of 
plain-speaking  frankness,  certainly,  *'we 
don't  want  none  of  that.  Have  you  got  a 
ticket  about  you?"  Thus,  to  too  great 
an  extent,  parson,  lady-visitor,  Scripture- 
reader,  Bible-woman  (if  used  as  almoners) 
are  looked  upon  as  relieving  officers,  and 
their  spiritual  errand  is,  at  best,  just  toler- 
ated in  the  hope  of  loaves  and  fishes. 

Lay  it  down  as  a  principle  of  national  im- 
portance, that  indiscriminate  and  injudicious 
almsgiving  is  a  national  mischief.  You  have 
a  principle  of  sound  political  economy  in 
the  New  Testament,  written  with  all  the 
authority  of  Divine  inspiration — **  Even 
when  we  were  with  you,  this  we  commanded 
you,  that  if  any  would  not  work,  neither 
should  he  eat."  * 

How  many  a  drunkard  has  felt  one   re- 
straint weakened  or  altogether  removed  by 

*  2  Thess.  iii.  lo. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  175 

the  thought  that  ''  the  parson  or  the  visiting 
lady  will  take  care  of  the  wife  and  family." 

Remember  then,  that  by  unwise  almsgiv- 
ing— not  to  be  dignified  with  the  name  of 
charity — you  are  not  only  misapplying 
money,  but  doing  public  mischief.  You 
are  contributing,  as  far  as  in  you  lies,  and 
within  the  area  of  your  influence,  to  the 
perpetuating  and  the  increase  of  impro- 
vidence, idleness,  and  vice. 

But  I  have  said  that  there  is  nowadays 
danger  of  our  rushing  to  the  opposite 
extreme — the  extreme  of  a  stony-hearted 
political  economy  which  would  either  banish 
almsgiving  from  the  duties  and  privileges 
of  Christian  men,  or  rob  such  charity  of  its 
grace  by  the  dry,  grudging,  suspicious 
spirit  in  which  it  is  bestowed.  True,  Chris- 
tian ministers,  and  Ladies  Bountiful,  and 
District  Visitors  have  been — and  are — very 
injudicious.  The  good  which  they  are 
doing  is  alloyed  with  much  harm.  But  our 
Bibles — Old  and  New  Testament — are  too 
full  of  precepts  and  exhortations  and  bene- 
dictions   and   threatenings   to   allow   us   to 


176  LETTERS  TO  A 

neglect  the  poor,  or  to  deal  with  them 
harshly.  "  The  poor  shall  never  cease  out 
of  the  land,"  is  as  true  of  England  as  of 
Judea.  "  Ye  have  the  poor  always  with 
you,"  says  our  great  Master. 

I  need  do  no  more  than  remind  you  and 
myself  how  touchingly,  but  how  solemnly, 
God  appears  and  speaks  as  the  champion 
and  avenger  of  the  poor  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  in  the  injunctions  of  our  Lord 
and  His  apostles  in  the  New  Testament. 
Under  these  old  heavens  and  this  old  earth 
poverty  will  never  be  extirpated.  A  vast 
amount  of  it  is  self-induced  and  self-in- 
flicted. A  vast  amount,  therefore,  may  be 
remedied,  palliated,  and  removed.  By  all 
means  let  enlightened  legislation,  religious 
education,  the  encouragement  of  self-reli- 
ance, industry,  and  providence,  be  combined 
to  lessen  its  amount  and  its  severity.  But 
there  will  always  be  room  for  the  exercise 
of  wise  Christian  almsgiving,  because  there 
will  always  be  deserving  poor.  And  when 
we  have  shut  up  our  bowels  of  compassion 
against  the  idle,  the  reckless,  and  the  pro- 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  177 

fligate,  there  will  remain  a  large  and  varied 
mass  of  poverty  with  which   the  Christian 
Church  must  deal,  and  feel  it  to  be  a  privi- 
lege— a  Christ-like,    God-like  privilege — to 
deal.     We  must  not,  for  a  moment,  imagine 
that  there  is  no   poverty  which   is  not  the 
result    of    direct    personal    fault.     In    the 
widow  and  the   fatherless,  in  the  sick  and 
aged,  who  could  not  have  provided  for  the 
day  of  sickness   or  old  age,  in  those  who 
have  been  stricken  by  one  or  other  of  the 
calamities  of  life,   there    will    remain  those 
whom   God  commends  to  us  in  His  Word, 
and    in     compassionating    whom    we   may 
bring   down   upon   ourselves    His   heavenly 
benediction.     Let  us  organize  against  pro- 
fessional  beggars    and    against   impostors, 
but  let  us  not  organize  almsgiving  out  of 
the  Church,  as  if  the  whole  question  were 
to  be  solved  by  the  workhouse.     Our  work- 
houses, like  our  hospitals,   may  be   due  to 
Christianity,  and  standing  evidences  of  that 
care  for  the  poor  which  Christianity,  in  the 
spirit  and  after  the  example  of  its  Divine 
Founder,  enjoins.     But  the  Christian  Church 

12 


1.78  LETTERS   TO  A 

is  not  to  relegate  all  her  poor  to  the  work- 
house ;  nor  is  the  relieving  officer  the  sub- 
stitute for  the  Christian  pastor  and  his 
Christian  flock. 

What  then  is  to  be  done  ?  In  a  large 
and  poor  parish  the  difficulty  is  very  great. 
It  is  so  easy  to  raise  money  for  the  poor ;  so 
pleasant  to  give  it  away.  The  importunate 
and  the  clamorous,  always  the  least  deserv- 
ing, give  you  no  trouble.  They  are  often  at 
the  parsonage  or  the  vestry.  The  deserving 
are  among  the  timid  and  retiring,  and  must 
be  searched  out.  I  am  not  undertaking  to 
give  you  a  cut  and  dried  plan.  You  must, 
according  to  the  character  and  circum- 
stances of  your  parish,  the  amount  of  your 
charitable  resources,  the  strength  of  your 
staff  of  helpers,  work  your  way  to  your  own 
plans.  Appreciate  the  difficulty;  try  to 
grapple  with  it,  and  to  minimize  it,  at  any 
rate.  Distinguish  clearly  between  scriptural 
almsgiving  and  easy,  careless  money- giving. 
You  must  have  principles  and  you  must 
have  plan.  Never  give  without  inquiry. 
Never  encourage   the  running  about  after 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  179 

tickets.  Whether  or  no  your  spiritual 
helpers  should  also  be  your  almoners, 
whether  you  should  form  a  lay- relief  com- 
mittee, are  points  open  to  question.  The 
difficulties  are  so  great  in  large  and  poor 
parishes,  that  one  is  tempted  to  throw  it  off 
from  one's  own  brains  and  shoulders  upon 
laymen.  But  I  have  never  been  able  to  see 
my  way  to  dissociate  myself  entirely  from 
the  administration  of  relief  to  the  poor. 
The  example  of  our  Master  seems  to  forbid 
it.  He  cared  for  the  bodily  wants  of  men, 
although  His  great  mission  was  to  save 
their  souls.  While  then  I  would  gladly 
**  serve  tables"  less,  I  have  never  seen  my 
way  to  commit  this  duty  wholly  to  others. 
The  poor  will  have  little  faith  in  our  care  for 
them,  if  we  recognize  their  spiritual  wants 
only. 

At  all  events,  whatever  your  plans  and 
agencies,  avoid  charitable  bribery,  **  The 
household  of  faith  "  find  their  representa- 
tives, in  human  judgment,  in  regular  wor- 
shippers and  communicants.  But  one  hears 
with  shame  of  days — past,  we  would  hope, 


i8o  LETTERS  TO  A 

for   ever — when  a  dole  from  the  sacrament 
money  was  the  regular  reward  of  poor  com- 
municants.    I  should  be  ashamed  to  refute 
the  misapplication   of  our  Lord's  example, 
were    it    not    that    I    once    heard    it    used 
seriously  by  a  clergyman,  who  forgot  that 
our  Lord  did  not  induce  the  multitude  to 
follow  Him  by  promising  them  loaves  and 
fishes  ;    but  worked  His  bounteous  miracle 
to    sustain    them    after    their    attendance ; 
and  on  one   of  the  two  occasions,  warned 
them  that  they  were  seeking  Him  because 
they  had    eaten    of    the   loaves,    and  were 
filled. 

Clearly,  one  of  the  best  means  of  helping 
the  poorer  classes  is  by  stimulating  them 
to  provident  habits,  by  moderate  premiums 
upon  deposits,  whether  in  penny  banks  or  in 
our  various  clubs.  There  are  not  wanting 
instances  in  which,  with  no  premium,  deposit 
clubs  are  very  successful. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that  the  provi- 
dent prmciple  should  be  applied  very  generally 
to  medical  relief  also. 

You    will    hardly    need    to     be    warned 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  i8i 

against  giving  relief  in  7noney.  There  will 
be  a  case  occasionally  in  which  it  will  be 
both  wise  and  considerate  to  give  the  re- 
cipient the  opportunity  of  spending  your 
gift  for  himself;  but  these  cases  will  be  rare 
exceptions.  If  you  are  well  assured  on  the 
score  of  sobriety,  more  especially,  and  have 
good  grounds  for  confidence,  it  will  be  well 
to  show  it  in  an  unsuspecting  spirit.  Amid 
many  who  are  unworthy,  there  are  those 
among  the  poor  whom  you  may  thoroughly 
trust,  and  they  will  make  your  money  go 
farther  than  you  can,  and  more  exactly  meet 
their  special  wants.  You  will  find  it  very 
hard  to  teach  and  train  your  District  Visitors 
in  this  matter.  Their  tendency  is  to  let  the 
temporal  element  of  their  office  obscure  the 
spiritual.  I  am  supposing  that  you  give 
relief,  in  some  measure,  through  them. 
They  are  too  apt  to  degenerate  into  reliev- 
ing officers.  As  women,  they  have  tender 
hearts,  and  are  too  often  sensitive  and 
impulsive.  All  your  reasonings,  however 
sound  and  scriptural  your  political  economy, 
are   powerless   before    a  case   of    poverty. 


i82     LETTERS  TO  A  YOUNG  CLERGYMAN. 

Their  hearts  run  away  with  their  heads. 
Wise  district  visitors  are  rare.  Mere  ticket- 
givers  are  rife. 

Yours  faithfully, 

John  C.  Miller. 


X. 

Public   Catechizing — Schools — Bible  Classes — 
Confirmation. 

My  dear  Brother, — **  The  neglect  of 
Catechizing  is  the  frustrating  of  the  whole 
work  of  the  Christian  ministry."  The  state- 
ment, as  thus  made  by  an  eminent  Bishop, 
is  over-strong,  but  is  nevertheless  true,  to 
no  inconsiderable  extent. 

**  The  Curate  of  every  parish  shall  dili- 
gently upon  Sundays  and  Holy-days,  after 
the  Second  Lesson  at  Evening  Prayer, 
openly  in  the  Church  instruct  and  examine 
as  many  Children  of  his  Parish  sent  unto 
him,  as  he  shall  think  convenient,  in  some 
part  of  this  Catechism." 

**And  all  Fathers,  Mothers,  Masters,  and 
Dames,  shall  cause  their  Children,  Servants, 
and  Apprentices,  (which  have  learned  their 


1 84  LETTERS   TO  A 

Catechism,)  to  come  to  the  Church  at  the 
time  appointed,  and  obediently  to  hear,  and 
be  ordered  by  the  Curate,  until  such  time  as 
they  have  learned  all  that  is  here  appointed 
for  them  to  learn/' 

Such  are  the  injunctions,  as  set  forth  in 
the  rubrics  at  the  end  of  the  Catechism,  in 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

*'If,"  writes  Dean  Burgon,*  ''there  be 
one  practice  more  than  another  which  has 
been  urgently  recommended  by  our  Divines, 
as  well  as  emphatically  enjoined,  and  yet 
has  fallen  into  general  desuetude,  it  is  this. 
The  rubrics  of  every  edition  of  the  Prayer 
Book  have  been  express,  and  they  have  ever 
increased  in  stringency.  In  1549,  the  curate 
'  once  in  six  weeks  at  the  least  ....  once 
upon  some  Sunday  or  holiday,  half  an  hour 
before  Evensong^  was  required  *  openly  in 
the  church,  to  instruct  and  examine  so  many 
children,'  etc.  In  1552,  catechizing  was 
enjoined  *  upon  Sundays  ^Xi^  holidays;^  and 
then  made  a  regular  weekly  ordinance.  By 
the  canon  of  1603   (No.  Ix.)  it  was  enforced 

*  Page  279. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  185 

under  penalty  of  exco7nmimication  to  *  Parson, 
Vicar,  or  Curate,'  as  well  as  to  the  people 
who  neglected  it.  In  1662,  the  rubric  sus- 
tained a  memorable  alteration.  Catechizing 
was  to  take  place  '  after  the  Second  Lesson 
at  Evening  Prayer,'  the  evident  intention 
being  to  secure  the  presence  of  the  congre- 
gation. But  instead  of  drawing  to  the  Cate- 
chism, this  had  the  effect  of  driving  away 
from  the  prayers." 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  affirming  that  the 
very  general  (although  not  universal)  neg- 
lect of  these  injunctions  has  been  a  great 
spiritual  loss  to  our  people,  and  that  the 
universal  revival  of  Public  Catechizing,  by 
obedience  to  these  rubrics, — at  least  in  their 
spirit,* — is  greatly  to  be  desired. 

And  when  I  say  this,  I  mean  by  Cate- 
chizing, actual  Catechizing — not  religious 
instruction  only,  but — religious  instruction 
by  question  and  answer. 

Is  it  not  a  fact  that  even  now,  after  all 

*  Now-a-days,  when  our  composite  service  is  divided,  the 
Litany  is  sometimes  read  as  the  service  for  the  afternoon, 
without  a  lesson  or  lessons. 


1 86  LETTERS   TO  A 

our  religious  teaching  in  our  day  and  Sun- 
day schools,  a  large  number  even  of  our 
church-going  folk  are  mournfully — I  had 
almost  said  disgracefully  —  ignorant  of 
elementary  religious  truth  ?  And  this 
applies,  not  only  to  servants  and  to  the 
humbler  classes,  but  to  children  in  the 
classes  above  them,  not  excluding  the 
highest.  Have  we  not,  to  a  great  extent, 
allowed  the  latter  to  slip  through  our 
fingers  ?  Are  they  not  too  often  far  more 
ignorant  of  these  elementary  and  funda- 
mental truths  than  our  best  school-children  ? 
They  are  brought  to  church  by  their  parents, 
but  our  sermons  are  necessarily  unsuited, 
in  great  measure,  to  their  knowledge  and 
capacities.  Hence  it  has  become  one  of 
the  pressing  questions  with  which  the 
Church  has  to  deal  at  this  moment,  **  How 
we  may  reach  the  children  of  the  upper  and 
middle  classes."  For  there  are  thousands 
of  the  children  of  our  nobility,  gentry,  and 
upper  tradesmen  who  would  be  *'  nowhere  " 
in  a  competitive  examination  with  the  children 
in  our  parochial  day  and  Sunday  schools. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  187 

True,  within  the  last  few  years,  Services 
for  the  Young  and  Children^  s  Services  have 
happily  become  common.  Earnest  pastors 
have  felt  that  there  was  a  want,  and  have, 
to  this  extent,  and  by  these  means,  tried 
to  meet  it.  And  these  services  are  most 
valuable.  No  pastor  who  has  tried  them, 
unless  he  be  utterly  destitute  of  the  gift 
of  speaking  simply,  lovingly,  tersely,  and 
graphically  to  children  and  young  people, 
has  found  them  fail.  But  I  submit,  notwith- 
standing, that  these  services  do  not  fully 
meet  the  want.  As  I  have  written  in  a 
former  letter,  such  addresses  may  be — and 
should  be — made,  to  a  great  extent,  cate- 
chetical. Every  now  and  then  a  skilled 
preacher  throws  in  a  question,  and,  as  the 
children  do  not  know  at  any  moment  that 
a  question  may  not  be  put,  such  a  plan 
keeps  them  on  the  qui  vive. 

But,  for  the  most  part,  systematic  teaching 
is  wanted,  whether  on  the  Catechism  of 
the  Church,  or  on  a  series  of  consecutive 
subjects  and  parts  of  Holy  Scripture.  By 
systematic  teaching  is  not  meant  the  com- 


i88  LETTERS   TO  A 

pression  of  their  knowledge  and  faith  into 
some  narrow  system  of  theology  of  man's 
devising,  but  systematic  teaching  in  the 
sense  of  an  orderly  consecutive,  compre- 
hensive arrangement  of  scriptural  truth,  as 
opposed  to  that  which  is  random  and  desul- 
tory. 

*'  But,"  you  say,  *^  you  are  forgetting  or 
ignoring  our  Sunday  schools.  Are  not 
they  an  adequate  substitute  for  the  old- 
fashioned  catechizing  enjoined  by  the  Prayer 
Book,  and  a  substitute  more  in  accordance 
with  our  modern  likings  and  habits  ?  '' 

Let  no  words  drop  from  my  pen  in  unjust 
and  ungrateful  depreciation  of  Sunday 
schools.  Least  of  all  at  an  educational 
crisis  when,  under  the  working  of  present 
legislation,  they  are  becoming  of  greater 
importance  than  ever,  and  when  we  recog- 
nize with  thankfulness  that  clergy  and  laity 
are  putting  forth  efforts  for  their  greater 
efficiency,  and  are  impressing  upon  our 
teachers  the  growing  importance  of  their 
holy  work  and  their  heavier  responsibilities. 

I    should    be    digressing,     perhaps,     too 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  189 

widely  from  the  special  object  of  these 
letters,  were  I  to  enlarge  on  the  benefits 
which  we  have  long  reaped  from  our  Sun- 
day schools,  if  only  in  the  fact  that  they 
have  brought  thousands  of  loving  Christian 
workers  of  a  higher  social  grade  into  sym- 
pathetic contact  with  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  the  children  of  the  humbler  classes. 

**  Teacher,"  to  use  the  children's  term, 
has  not  seldom  become  the  watchful,  wise, 
and  affectionate  friend  and  adviser  of  his  or 
her  scholars.  Nor  is  it  to  be  forgotten  that 
our  Sunday  schools  have  presented  a  field 
of  Christian  work  to  countless  Christians,  of 
both  sexes  and  of  all  ages,  when,  having 
been  impressed  by  a  Saviour's  love,  and 
drawn  from  selfish  idleness  or  worse,  they 
have  felt  an  earnest  zeal  for  that  Saviour 
and  for  souls  for  which  He  died  kindling 
in  their  hearts.  These  schools  have  given 
them  a  niche  as  Christian  workers.  From 
them  has  sounded  out  the  call — *'  Go  work 
to-day  in  my  vineyard." 

All  this,  and  more  than  this,  is  heartily 
recognized. 


I90  LETTERS   TO  A 

Nevertheless — the  statement,  as  I  know 
from  experience,  will  gravely  displease 
many  whom  I  am  sorry  to  offend — my  con- 
viction, long  felt  and  firmly  held,  is  that, 
on  the  whole,  the  actual  spiritual  results 
OF  OUR  Sunday  schools  have  been  over- 
rated. Observe,  I  say — on  the  whole — 
not  doubting  for  an  instant  that  they  have 
been  largely  blessed,  and  that  many  a 
Sunday-school  teacher  can  give  decisive  and 
cheering  evidences  of  life-long  good  and 
of  rich  blessing  upon  lambs  of  the  Good 
Shepherd's  flock,  who,  in  later  years  or  on 
beds  of  early  death,  have  given  every  reason 
to  hope  that,  as  the  result  of  their  teacher's 
efforts,  they  have  learned  to  love  their  Father 
in  heaven  and  His  dear  Son  their  Lord. 

But  my  point  is  not  to  disparage  Sunday 
schools — far,  very  far,  be  it  from  one  who, 
during  his  ministry,  has  found,  in  three 
large  parishes,  some  of  his  most  devoted 
and  efficient  **  helpers  in  Christ  Jesus" 
among  his  Sunday-school  teachers.  My 
point  is  this,  that  the  most  efficient  Sunday 
schools  are  not  a  sufficient  substitute  for  the 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  191 

ancient  Church  practice  of  public  catechiz- 
ing by  the  parish  clergy.  For  the  clergy- 
man is  thus  brought  into  direct  contact  with 
the  lambs  of  the  flock,  as  their  pastor.  In 
very  many  of  our  parishes  the  clergyman 
can  do  little  else  on  Sunday  for  his  Sunday 
school  than  visit  it.  Whether  he  be  a  coun- 
try clergyman,  single-handed — sometimes 
with  a  distant  hamlet  in  his  parish — or  a 
town  clergyman,  with  a  large  church — to 
become  a  regular  teacher  in  his  Sunday 
school  is  to  undertake  work  beyond  his 
physical  strength.  No  man  who  has  to 
preach,  for  instance,  in  the  morning  should 
lose  the  freshness  of  his  spirit  and  of  his 
physical  strength  by  teachmg  in  his  Sunday 
school.  In  very  many  cases  he  will  be  single- 
handed  throughout  two  services  at  least, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  administration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  and  of  surplice  duty.  Not  to 
go  into  the  varying  details  of  varying  cases, 
it  may  be  taken  as  a  rule  that  most  clergy- 
men would  be  overtasked,  mentally  or  phy- 
sically, by  being  Sunday-school  teachers. 
But  let  the  arrangements  of  the  day's  duties 


192  LETTERS   TO  A 

be  such  as  that  Public  Catechizing  shall 
have  its  place,  according  to  local  circum- 
stances, in  the  Church  services.  Whether 
literal  compliance,  every  Sunday,  with  the 
rubric  be  impracticable  or  undesirable  for 
the  spiritual  interests  of  his  people,  as  a 
whole,  is  not  for  me  to  determine.  I  am 
contending  for  obedience  to  the  spirit,  at 
least,  of  our  Church's  requirements.  In  my 
own  case,  I  have  felt  it  to  be  right  to  have 
a  monthly  children's  service,  the  addresses 
at  which  are  characterized  by  something  of 
the  catechetical  element ;  and  sometimes  to 
announce  public  catechizing  pure  and  simple. 
It  may  be  that,  at  first,  there  will  be  a 
little  discontent  among  the  worshippers  at 
afternoon  service,  but  this  will  seldom  last 
long.  Servants,  who,  it  will  be  observed, 
are  included  by  name  in  the  rubric,  will  soon 
find  and  acknowledge  that,  if  catechizing  be 
well  conducted  by  the  minister,  they  learn 
more  from  it  than  from  his  sermons.  In- 
stead of  dozing  under  the  latter,  their  in- 
terest in  the  answers  of  the  children  (even 
if  you   cannot  induce  them  to   answer    for 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  193 

themselves),  and  the  simple,  intelligible  form 
which  the  teaching  must  assume,  must  help 
him  greatly. 

**  The  chief  difficulty  attending  this  ordi- 
nance," again  to  quote  Dean  Burgon,*  *'  is 
to  preserve  a  middle  course  between,  on  the 
one  hand,  so  exclusively  teaching  the  chil- 
dren as  to  annoy  the  congregation  ;  and,  on 
the  other,  so  exclusively  teaching  the  con- 
gregation that  the  children  shall  be  practi- 
cally overlooked.  The  former  method  makes 
catechizing  first  unpopular,  then  impracti- 
cable ;  while  the  latter  renders  it  null  and 
void,  destroying  its  professed  purpose.  We 
must  ever  have  an  eye  to  the  instruction  of 
those  lambs  of  the  fold  who  come  to  be 
taught  '  which  be  the  first  principles  of  the 
oracles  of  God'  (Heb.  v.  12).  But  this  need 
not  make  our  teaching  unacceptable  to  their 
elders.  By  frequent  remarks  of  a  loftier  kind, 
which  we  shall  not  affect  to  address  to  the 
juniors,  but  to  the  congregation  at  large,  we 
shall  seek  to  conciliate  indulgence  in  respect 
of  the  elementary  instruction  which  it  is  our 

*  Page  280. 

13 


194  LETTERS   TO   A 

declared  purpose  to  convey.  But  it  is  a 
mistake  to  imagine  that  elementary  instruc- 
tion is  unacceptable  to  country  people  of 
mature  age.  Many  simple  things  which  fall 
from  us  are  new  to  them  ;  or  we  explain 
what  they  have  often  wished  to  know  about, 
but  have  been  ashamed  to  ask." 

Only,  truth  must  be  told,  even  though  it 
sound  discouragingly.  Public  Catechiz- 
ing is  to  few  of  us  an  easy  work.  Some  men 
have  special  love  for  children  and  special 
gifts  for  attracting  and  teaching  them.  An 
electric  sympathy — strange  and  undefinable 
— is  at  once  felt  on  both  sides.  They  see  in 
their  questioner,  not  a  stern,  prim,  unelastic 
man,  with  the  aspect  and  tone  of  a  formid- 
able schoolmaster,  but  a  man  whose  face 
beams,  because  his  heart  yearns,  at  the 
sight  of  a  group  or  mass  of  Christ's  little 
ones  gathered  before  him,  to  be  fed  in 
Christ's  pastures  and  won  to  Christ's  love. 
They  soon  remember  that  he  too  was  once 
a  child,  and  feel  that  he  knows  a  child's 
heart. 

It  would  be  absurd  to  deny — we  see  it  in 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  195 

our  homes — that  all  men  are  not  such  as  I 
am  describing.  We  see  too  that  children 
are  keenly  sensible  of  the  difference  between 
those  who  speak  to  them  from  hearts  which 
love  children,  and  those  who  speak  unreally, 
unsympathizingly,  and  by  constraint.  And 
it  would  be  absurd  to  deny  that  all  men 
have  not  the  gift  of  dealing  with  children. 
But  you  must  not  dismiss  this  part  of  your 
duty  by  saying,  **I  have  no  gift  for  it."  If  it 
be  a  duty,  you  must  try  by  observation,  by 
diligence,  by  practice,  by  prayer,  to  discharge 
it  to  your  very  best,  as  God,  by  His  Spirit, 
may  enable  you.  And  in  discharging  it,  re- 
member Xh.'dX preaching  \%  not  catechizing, — that 
is,  the  strength  lies  in  being  catechetical.  You 
must  not  ride  off  into  a  sermonette.  Keep 
to  question  and  answer.  Catechize  it  into 
them,  as  it  has  been  often  and  well  put, 
and  then  catechize  it  out  of  them.  You  will 
never  know  what  you  have  succeeded  in  put- 
ting in,  until  you  see  what  you  can  draw 
out. 

In  putting  your  questions,  be  very  brief, 
very  plain,  and  very  pointed.     Consider  your 


196  LETTERS   TO  A 

question  before  you  put  it.  Be  careful  not 
to  bewilder  young  and  weak  brains  by  put- 
ting the  question  in  two  or  three  forms  at 
once — I  mean  by  mending  it  and  patching 
it  as  you  go  on.  I  remember  to  have  been 
told  that  Bishop  Blomfield,  who  could  edit 
^schylus,  was  a  very  good  catechizer,  and 
that  one  of  the  elements  of  his  excellence 
was  that  he  never  put  his  question  twice — 
that  is,  he  never  puzzled  the  children  by 
mending  it  as  he  went  on. 

Never  discourage  or  humble  a  child  by 
ridiculing  what  may  be  a  wrong,  or  even 
silly,  answer.  Very  much  oftener  than  we 
think,  a  child  has  a  reason  for  such  an 
answer.  He  has  some  association  in  his 
mind,  thoroughly  blundering  perhaps,  which 
prompts  his  answer,  however  wide  of  the 
mark,  and  even  laughable.  A  kindly  smile 
must  be  all ;  not  a  contemptuous  laugh  nor 
an  angry  reproof. 

Your  catechizing  should  be  wound  up  by 
a  few  moments  of  direct  personal  and  prac- 
tical application.  Don't  let  it  end  as  a 
lesson  for  the  head.     Leave  the  impression 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  197 

that,  however  much  you  wish  to  instruct  their 
minds,  your  first  aim  is  to  reach  their  hearts  ; 
that  they  are  not  to  be  content  with  glib  and 
correct  answers,  but  are  learning  lessons  of 
the  highest  moment,  and  for  daily  practice. 

The  benefit  to  yourself  will  be  very  great 
— great  in  proportion  to  your  own  intellec- 
tual power  and  to  your  acquirements.  To 
instil  the  most  solemn  truths  into  young 
hearts  will  be  found  to  bring  a  reflex  benefit 
to  men  of  highest  mental  grasp  and  culture. 
It  helps  them  to  clearness  and  thoroughness 
of  view.  They  cannot  teach  others  what 
they  do  not  see  clearly  themselves.  It 
obliges  them  to  be  simple.  It  brings  them 
from  the  abstract  to  the  concrete. 

From  what  has  been  already  said,  you  will 
have  gathered  that  your  catechizings  are 
not  to  be  announced  and  carried  on  as  for  the 
children  of  the  poor  only.  Stir  up  parents  of 
all  classes  to  send  their  children.  Stir  up 
masters  and  mistresses  to  send  their  ser- 
vants. Be  assured  that  it  will  be  your 
fault  if  your  catechumens  do  not  value  and 
enjoy  it. 


198  LETTERS   TO  A 

It  is  important  to  encourage  preparation 
on  their  part,  by  announcing  your  subject 
beforehand.  Particularly  let  your  day-school 
masters  and  mistresses  prepare  their  scholars. 
Readiness  on  the  part  of  even  a  few  to 
answer  will  stimulate  others,  and  your  efforts 
will  not  be  frustrated  by  a  dead  silence. 
Let  me  here  repeat  what  I  urged  in  a  former 
letter.  In  your  desire  to  interest  children  in 
your  sermons  and  catechizings,  beware  of 
losing  gravity  and  unction.  Let  your  live- 
liness be  tempered  by  gravity.  In  striving 
to  attract  and  hold  their  attention,  never 
drop  into  irreverence.  This  caution  is  not 
needless.  It  is  given  by  one  who  is  now 
conscious  of  having  erred. 

Obviously,  it  is  most  desirable  to  direct 
their  attention  to  the  seasons  of  the  Church's 
year.  Explain  to  them  the  meaning  of  the 
terms  Septuagesima,  Sexagesimal  Quiiiqua- 
gesimay  Lent,  etc.,  etc. ;  and,  from  time  to 
time,  explain  to  them  any  words  in  the 
Prayer  Book  which  are  now  used  in  a 
different  sense  or  have  become  obsolete. 
While   your   first    endeavour   is   to   ground 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  199 

them  well  in  the  understanding  of  Holy 
Scripture,  and  to  press  practical  lessons 
upon  their  consciences  and  hearts,  do  not 
lose  sight  of  the  duty  of  helping  to  train 
them,  as  members  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, to  the  intelligent  and  edifying  use  of 
her  Prayer  Book.  Give  them,  therefore,  a 
general  view  of  the  construction  and  order  of 
our  Liturgy.  You  need  not  to  be  told  that, 
in  thus  doing,  you  will  not  be  substituting 
the  Prayer  Book  for  the  Bible,  but  richly 
illustrating  the  former  from  the  latter. 
And,  without  leading  them  into  the  thorny 
paths  of  theological  controversy,  point  out 
to  elder  children  and  servants,  when  oc- 
casion arises,  the  difference  between  the 
teaching  of  their  Church  and  Romish  error. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  worship  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  and  the  ministratio7z  of  angels.  It  is 
easy  and  most  important  to  show,  simply 
and  plainly,  the  distinction  between  Catholic 
truth,  as  held  by  our  Church,  and  the  accre- 
tions of  Romish  superstition  and  idolatry. 

Already   I    have   necessarily   said   some- 
thing about  Sunday  Schools,  in  speaking 


200  LETTERS   TO   A 

of  Public  Catechizing.  Visit  your  Sunday 
school  personally  as  often  as  you  can.  Your 
lengthened  absence  will  discourage  your 
superintendent  and  teachers,  and  give  an 
impression  that  you  set  no  great  store  by 
them. 

Insist  as  far  as  possible  on  continuous  and 
systematic  teaching,  not  haphazard  lessons 
at  the  judgment  or  caprice  of  the  teachers. 
"  The  Church  of  England  Sunday  School 
Institute"  and  ''The  Sunday  School  Union" 
furnish  abundant  and  excellent  materials,  if 
you  have  neither  time  nor  talent  to  draw  out 
systematic  courses  for  yourself. 

One  great  difficulty,  often  a  very  serious 
and  embarrassing  one,  is  to  procure  good 
teachers — good,  not  only  as  godly,  zealous, 
and  well-meaning,  but  as  being  fairly  edu- 
cated themselves,  and  skilled  in  teaching. 
In  larger  districts  it  will  be  found  most 
desirable  to  form  a  Teachers'  Union,  if  you 
will,  in  connection  with  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land Sunday  School  Institute,  and  to  have 
monthly  meetings,  at  least,  for  addresses, 
and  especially  for  model  lessons  and  prac- 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  201 

tising  classes.  In  Greenwich,  as  in  many 
other  places,  these  are  found  to  be  of  great 
value  to  all  the  teachers,  especially  to 
novices.  They  have  the  additional  effect  of 
binding  the  teachers  together.  An  annual 
public  meeting  or  social  gathering  calls  the 
attention  of  parishioners  generally  to  Sun- 
day-school work,  and  draws  out  their  sym- 
pathies. In  cases  in  which  such  plans  are 
impracticable,  it  is  most  important  that  one 
of  the  clergy  have  teachers'  classes,  taking 
beforehand  the  lessons  to  be  given  on  the 
following  Sunday.  Insist  continually  that  it 
is  essential  to  be  largely  catechetical.  Check 
sermonettes.  It  is  so  much  easier  for  a 
teach^  to  sit  down  and  pour  out  a  stream 
of  washy  talk  than  to  catechize. 

Looked  at  in  the  light  of  their  self-denial, 
our  teachers  are,  many  of  them,  among  the 
most  self-denying  workers  in  the  Church  of 
Christ;  for  they  are  drawn  very  largely 
from  the  ranks  of  persons  who  labour  hard, 
early  and  late,  during  six  days.  We  can 
hardly  appreciate  their  Sunday  work  in  our 
schools  too  gratefully.     But  most  of  them 


202  LETTERS   TO  A 

are,  at  first,  thoroughly  raw  and  unskilled. 
Some  plan  therefore  must  be  carried  out 
for  their  instruction  and  training. 

A  few  words  on  the  attendmice  at  church 
of  Sunday  scholars.  At  length,  common 
sense  has  begun  to  prevail  in  many  parishes. 
The  question  has  often  been  asked  despond- 
ingly,  *'  How  is  it  that  so  many  who  have 
been  taught  in  our  Sunday  schools  drop  out 
of  the  number  of  our  church-goers  when 
they  have  left  us?  "  To  a  larger  extent,  I 
believe,  than  we  have  been  aware  of,  this  has 
been  owing  to  the  distaste  which  they  have 
felt,  when  scholars,  for  our  mistakes  about 
church  attendance.  No  parent  in  his  senses 
would  deal  with  his  own  children  as  we  have 
dealt  with  thousands  of  our  Sunday  scholars. 
We  have  kept  them  from  nine  or  half-past 
nine  in  the  morning,  often  under  a  prosy, 
preaching  teacher,  until  church  time.  We 
have  then  taken  them  to  church,  and  too 
often  thrust  them  into  our  under  galleries, 
in  out  of  the  way  sittings,  where  they  could 
see  and  hear  but  imperfectly,  if  at  all.  We 
have  given  them  full  morning  prayer,  and  a 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  203 

sermon,  if  not  long,  yet  utterly  unsuited  to 
their  capacities.  They  have  either  fallen 
asleep  or  amused  themselves.  And,  if  we 
have  not  all  of  us  set  a  functionary  over 
them  such  as  I  once  heard  a  clergyman 
from  the  North  humorously  describe — a 
nobbier  I — to  hit  and  poke  them  as  they  fell 
asleep  under  the  pressure  of  heat  and  bad 
air — we  have,  at  any  rate,  wondered  that, 
when  they  grew  up,  their  reminiscences  of 
church-going  were  not  such  as  to  induce 
them  to  continue  their  attendance.  And  if 
all  have  not  exclaimed,  as  a  young  man  did 
at  Birmingham,  as  he  passed  by  when  the 
church  bell  struck  up,  *'  How  I  hate  that 
bell !  " — in  remembrance  of  his  Sunday 
weariness — they  have  brought  away  a  dis- 
taste for  what  was,  in  their  school  days,  so 
irksome  to  mind  and  body.  Better  far  to 
make  it  the  privilege  of  the  elder  scholars 
to  come  to  church,  and  to  give  the  young- 
sters and  the  tinies  a  short  and  suitable 
service  in  their  school-room  or  elsewhere. 

Use  all  your  endeavours  to  retain  older 
boys  and   girls   at  school.      But   remember 


204  LETTERS   TO  A 

how  sensitive  you  were,  when  emerging  into 
manhood,  if  any  one  treated  you  still  as  a 
boy,  and  you  will  feel  it  to  be  essential  to 
withdraw  your  elder  scholars  into  a  class- 
room, and  not  leave  them  with  children. 

Of  your  duty  in  your  day  schools,  if 
happily  you  retain  such,  it  is  unnecessary 
for  me  to  say  much.  If  your  other  duties 
allow  it,  give  some  measure  of  religious 
instruction  in  them  personally.  Visit  them 
frequently.  Show  that  you  look  upon  your 
schoolmasters  and  schoolmistresses  as  fel- 
low workers  in  a  most  important  part  of 
your  work. 

But,  if  my  observation  is  correct,  some 
clergymen  give  an  undue  proportion  of  their 
time  and  energy  to  their  schools.  They 
feel — and  feel  rightly — the  vast  importance 
of  the  education  of  the  young ;  and  their 
schools  are  not  only  much  to  them,  but 
well  nigh  everything,  That  a  man's  schools 
should  be  his  strong- point  may  be  well  if  he 
have  a  special  gift  and  taste  in  that  direc- 
tion. By  their  means  he  does  a  great,  a 
•very  great,   work.     But   we   are    ordained, 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  205 

not  to  be  schoolmasters,  but  pastors  and 
preachers. 

Some  parochial  clergymen  have  kept  up, 
as  far  as  possible,  a  connection  between 
their  schools  and  the  scholars  who  have 
gone  out  into  life — especially  girls  who  have 
gone  into  domestic  service — by  a  yearly 
gathering  of  old  scholars,  and  by  a  reward 
for  continuance  in  their  places.  This  can  be 
done  partially  only.  But  it  is  an  excellent 
plan. 

Bible  Classes,  when  your  other  duties 
allow  you  time  and  strength  for  them,  are 
most  valuable  for  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  your  people.  If  they  are  to  be  successful 
you  must  not  mix  young  girls  and  grown-up 
women,  boys  and  men.  Here  too  you  will 
require  great  skill  to  keep  up  the  catecheti- 
cal element,  and  prevent  them  from  be- 
coming occasions  for  private  preaching.  I 
am  not  disparaging  the  latter, — occasions, 
I  mean,  for  your  own  direct  expositions  of 
Scripture.      But  these  are  not  Bible  classes. 

It  will  be  well,  where  it  is  practicable, 
to  give  out  a  few  questions  to  be  answered 


2o6  LETTERS  TO  A 

on  paper.  Correct  the  mistakes  in  these 
papers,  and  make  your  comments  at  a 
future  meeting  of  the  class,  without  any 
mention  of  names. 

Such  classes  afford  an  opportunity  for 
the  members  to  ask  your  help  on  any  diffi- 
cult texts,  or  on  other  points  on  which 
they  may  desire  it.  Let  these  be  brought 
to  you  in  writing,  and  answered,  without 
giving  the  writer's  name,  at  a  future  meet- 
ing. You  will  find  that  not  a  few  of  your 
people  have  difficulties  on  doctrinal  or 
practical  points  which  they  long  to  have 
solved,  but  which  they  will  not  venture  to 
bring  before  you,  without  invitation  and 
specific  opportunity,  especially  if  they  know 
you  to  be  a  very  busy  man. 

There  remains  one  subject  to  be  touched 
on  In  this  letter — a  subject  to  which  much 
of  what  has  been  said  leads  up — Confir- 
mation. 

You  will  find  no  pastor  who  throws  his 
heart  and  energies  Into  the  preparation  of 
his  candidates  for  Confirmation  who  does 
not  regard   it   as   an   opportunity  of  great 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  207 

value.  And  very  many  who  are  now  living 
consistent  Christian  lives  look  back  upon 
their  Confirmation,  after  the  instructions  of 
a  painstaking  pastor,  as,  under  the  blessing 
of  God's  Spirit  of  light  and  life,  the  turn- 
ing-point of  their  soul's  history. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  decisive  and  cheer- 
ing evidences  of  a  higher  standard  of  duty 
among  the  clergy — not  our  parochial  clergy 
only,  but  also  our  clerical  schoolmasters — 
that  candidates  are  no  longer  presented  to 
the  Bishop  in  the  perfunctory  and  formal 
way  which  was  too  prevalent  not  many 
years  since.  j\Iany  an  one  has  said  to  me, 
'''  When  I  was  confirmed,  I  was  asked  a  ques- 
tion or  two  in  the  Catechism,  and  that  was 
all."  No  classes,  no  special  instruction.  It 
is  most  mournful  to  remember  that  their 
Confirmation  was  but  too  generally  treated 
as  a  mere  form.  Now,  thank  God,  it  is 
regarded  by  every  true-hearted  pastor  as 
a  golden  opportunity,  occurring  but  once  ; 
and,  if  once  lost,  never  to  be  recovered. 

Writing  to  a  young  clergyman,  let  me 
first  say,  By  all  means  read  the  admirable 


2o8  LETTERS   TO  A 

volume  of  Lectures  by  the  late  Edward  B. 
Elliot,  the  learned  author  of  "  HorcE  Apoca- 
lypticce.y  You  will  learn  much  from  it  in 
regard  to  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  this 
rite,  and  be  enabled  to  put  it  in  a  true  and 
unexaggerated  view  before  your  candidates. 
It  will  be  most  satisfactory  to  your  own 
mind  to  see  how,  as  it  is  now  administered 
in  our  Church,  it  has  been  freed  from  ele- 
ments of  superstitious  error. 

The  precise  details  of  your  preparation  of 
candidates  must  depend  very  much  upon 
their  number,  and  various  other  circum- 
stances which  I  need  not  specify.  Whether 
it  be  desirable  to  form  Classes,  or  to  give 
Lectures,  or  to  issue  Questions  to  be  an- 
swered in  writing, — or  to  combine  all  these 
— when  and  where  Classes  are  to  be  held 
or  Lectures  given — must  be  left  to  your 
own  judgment.  And,  amid  a  large  mass 
of  Confirmation  literature,  you  must  make 
choice  for  yourself.  Addresses  and  tracts 
of  varied  degrees  of  excellence  abound,  from 
which  you  must  make  your  selection,  accord- 
ing to   your  own  teaching,  and  suitable  to 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  209 

the  capacities  and  circumstances  of  your 
own  candidates.  Only  realize  and  prize  the 
preclousness  of  the  opportunity.  Throw 
heart  and .  soul  into  the  work.  If  possible, 
with  reference  to  your  other  duties  and 
the  number  of  your  candidates,  see  each 
separately.  And  while  it  is  your  duty,  as 
a  clergyman,  to  make  the  Catechism  and 
the  Prayer  Book  generally  the  basis  of  your 
instructions,  rise,  and  try  to  raise  your 
young  people,  to  what  it  really  involves. 
Now  is  your  opportunity  to  ask  searchingly, 
in  the  light  of  their  Baptismal  privileges 
and  obligations,  not  simply  whether  they 
know  their  Catechism  but,  whether  they 
know  their  Father  and  their  Saviour.  Let 
not  the  answer  to  the  question,  ''  What  did 
your  godfathers  and  godmothers  then  for 
you  ?  "  be  repeated  in  its  letter  only,  but 
show  how  much  it  involves.  Press  the 
question,  "-  Have  you  been  living  as  Christ's 
faithful  soldier  and  servant  ?  "  Try  to  make 
them  realize  that  the  Baptismal  Service  was 
read  at  their  baptism  ;  that  for  them  those 
prayers  were  put   up ;  for  them  those  vows 

14 


210  LETTERS  TO  A 

made;  that  into  those  privileges  they  were 
admitted.  Press  the  enquiries,  **  Have 
you  lived  under  the  remembrance  of  your 
baptismal  obligations  ?  "  ''  Have  you  made 
the  great  choice?"  ^' Are  you  decided?" 
**  Are  you  in  the  right  road  ?  "  **  You  wear 
Christ's  uniform.  Are  you  a  deserter?  Are 
yon  fighting  manfully  under  His  banner?  " 
Warn  them  against  the  awful  mockery  of 
uttering  the  solemn  "  I  do  "  of  their  Con- 
firmation with  their  lips  only — a  lie  to  God. 
You  will,  of  course,  ask  whether  they  are 
living  in  the  habit  of  daily  prayer  and  of  read- 
ing their  Bibles.  You  will  be  faithful  about 
worldliness.  And  you  will  show  them  that, 
as  Confirmation  looks  back  to  Holy  Baptism, 
so  it  looks  forward  to  Holy  Communion^  and 
that,  if  they  are  in  a  state  to  be  confirmed, 
they  are  in  a  state  to  become  communicants. 
Many  clergymen  advise  their  candidates  to 
communicate  on  the  very  next  Sunday.  My 
own  practice  has  been  to  give  a  course  of 
three  or  four  lectures  on  the  Lord's  Supper 
immediately  after  Confirmation,  and  to  advise 
them  to  attend  after  such  instruction  has  been 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  211 

given.  And  it  is  well  to  ask  all  who  come,  to 
come  as  newly  confirmed  on  the  same  Sunday. 

Forgive  me  for  stating  what  is  my  own 
practice.  I  am  not  setting  it  up  dogmati- 
cally or  arrogantly,  as  a  standard  for 
others. 

Your  Bible-classes  will  be  found  to  be  an 
important  means  of  retaining  a  hold  upon 
those  who  have  been  confirmed  and  taken 
their  places  among  your  communicants. 

Yours  faithfully, 

John  C.  Miller, 


XL 

Surplice  Duty. 

My  Dear  Brother, — Among  the  various 
duties  of  the  Ministry  there  is  none  in  which 
we  are  more  in  danger  of  losing  life,  reality, 
and  freshness,  than  in  that  which  we  com- 
monly speak  of  as  Surplice  Duty — the 
administration  of  the  Sacrament  of  Holy 
Baptism,  and  the  offices  for  Holy  Matrimony, 
the  Churching  of  Women,  and  the  Burial  of 
the  Dead. 

In  parishes  in  which  the  Surplice  Duty 
is  what  is  termed  '*  heavy  "to —  use  an 
objectionable  phrase — we  are  prone  to  fall 
into  a  mechanical,  business  spirit,  and  thus 
to  lose  reverence,  unction,  and  impressive- 
ness. 

We  may  say,  with  truth  and  thankfulness. 


214  LETTERS   TO  A 

that,  of  late  years,  there  has  been  great  im- 
provement. But  we  need  not  go  back  very 
far  for  the  days  in  which  these  ministrations 
were  gone  through  disgracefully,  not  as 
holy  services  of  prayer  and  praise,  but  as 
formal  ceremonies,  connected  with  the  pay- 
ment of  fees.  Clergyman  and  parish  clerk 
were  alike  irreverent,  slipshod,  and  per- 
functory. The  dirtiest  of  the  dirty  and 
mildewed  surplices  was  reserved  for  them, 
and  services  of  the  highest  spiritual  tone 
and  of  exquisite  pathos  gabbled  through. 
Men  who  theoretically  attached  the  highest 
value  to  Holy  Baptism  showed  practically 
no  appreciation  of  that  sacrament  Vv^hen  at 
the  font,  and  exacted  the  abomination  of 
baptismal  fees,  under  the  pretext  of  a  fee 
for  registration.  The  mother  coming  to  be 
*' churched"  was  taught  by  her  Prayer 
Book  to  remember  before  God  that  He  had 
**  delivered"  her  "soul  from  death,"  and 
*' her  feet  from  falling;"  but  the  minister 
of  God  hurried  in  and  out  perfunctorily, 
and  neither  showed  sympathy  with  her  joy, 
nor  impressed  her  with  the  greatness  of  the 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  215 

mercy  which  she  came  to  acknowledge,  in 
having  been  delivered  '*  from  the  great  pain 
and  peril  of  childbirth."  The  clerk  asked 
(too  often  sharply)  for  the  fee,  and  thus 
ended  the  brief  and  perfunctory  office. 
The  bride  and  bridegroom,  at  an  epoch  of 
their  life  of  which  Jeremy  Taylor  has  said, 
**They  that  enter  into  a  state  of  marriage 
cast  a  die  of  the  greatest  contingency,  and 
yet  of  the  greatest  interest  in  the  world, 
next  to  the  last  throw  for  eternity,"  found 
provided  for  them  an  incomparable  service ; 
but  that  service  was  first  mutilated,  and 
then  hurried  through  without  reverence, 
sympathy,  or  pathos  ;  the  Holy  Ghost's  own 
Homily,  in  the  concluding  exhortation, 
drawn  from  Holy  Scripture,  being  alto- 
gether omitted,  because  the  clergyman  was 
too  lazy  or  too  much  in  a  hurry  to  seize 
the  precious  opportunity  of  impressing  upon 
husband  and  wife  their  new  duties. 

And — worst  of  all,  if  worse  were  possible 
— when  mourners,  often  with  bleeding  and 
bursting  hearts,  followed  their  dead  to  the 
grave,    the   difficult   task  was   achieved    of 


2i6  LETTERS   TO  A 

robbing  our  noble  and  thrilling  Burial 
Office  of  well-nigh  all  its  power. 

There  were  occasions  indeed  when  out- 
ward reverence  was  shown  and  pains  were 
taken.  The  babe  at  the  font — the  mother 
who  came  to  be  churched — the  bride  and 
bridegroom — the  body  to  be  buried — were 
from  the  so-called  *' better  classes."  Then 
the  surplice  was  clean — the  clergyman 
careful — the  clerk  spruce.  The  Service 
was  read  with  care  at  least.  The  Church 
functionaries  were  at  their  best. 

I  have  said  that  improvement — great  im- 
provement— has  taken  place.  But  this 
picture  is  not  altogether  one  of  the  past. 
There  is  room  for  improvement,  even  now, 
in  many  parishes. 

I  know  that,  where  surplice  duty  is  fre- 
quent, we  have  need  of  great  and  constant 
watchfulness  over  ourselves.  The  tendency 
is  to  a  spirit  of  routine  and  formality.  The 
familiar  and  oft-read  words  come  naturally 
to  our  lips.  We  know  them^  by  heart,  as 
we  speak,  and  therefore  too  often  say  them 
without  heart. 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  217 

Let  me  offer  a  few  considerations  which 
may  help  us  to  do  better. 

It  may  seem  unnecessary  to  remind  you 
that  these  services  are  services  to  God. 
But  are  they  so  ministered  by  us  all  ?  We 
are  praying  to  Him  who  **  cannot  be  de- 
ceived, and  will  not  be  mocked.'*  To  Him 
the  praises  are  offered — even  to  the  High 
and  Holy  One,  the  Searcher  of  hearts. 
We  are  not  simply  reading  a  service,  but 
offering  worship,  asking  for  blessings, 
giving  thanks  for  His  greatest  mercies, 
reading  His  holy  Word— as  truly  as  in  our 
Morning  or  Evening  Prayer.  Surely  this 
should  be  enough  to  quicken  us  to  rever- 
ence, reality,  and  care. 

Consider,  too,  the  mournful  effect  pro- 
duced, almost  necessarily,  upon  those  to 
whom  and  for  whom  we  are  ministering. 
Can  we  wonder  that  these  holy  and  touching 
offices — connected,  each  and  all  of  them, 
with  momentous  and  solemn  epochs  in  their 
lives — come  to  be  regarded  merely  as  proper 
and  decent  forms — things  which  it  is  proper 
to  go  through — when  the  minister  of  God 


2i8  LETTERS   TO  A 

shows  himself  to  be  hurried,  careless,  and 
unimpressed  ?  And  without  sympathy. 
Which  of  the  chief  persons  engaged  in  these 
services  does  not  deserve  sympathy?  Surely 
the  helpless  babe,  born  in  sin,  now  to  be 
grafted  into  Christ's  Church,  amid  the 
riches  of  God's  covenant  love,  as  his  heavenly 
Father,  and  to  be  signed  '*with  the  sign  of" 
Christ's  '^  cross,  in  token  that  he  shall  not 
be  ashamed  to  confess  Christ  Crucified,  and 
fight  manfully  under  His  banner,  against 
sin,  the  world,  and  the  devil,  and  to  continue 
Christ's  faithful  soldier  and  servant  unto  his 
life's  end" — surely  the  mother  and  the 
father  under  their  new  joys  and  solemn 
responsibilities — surely  the  woman  who  has 
come  up  from  the  gates  of  the  grave — 
should  be  met,  not  by  an  ecclesiastical 
functionary  and  a  fussy  parish  clerk,  but  by 
a  sympathising  pastor. 

Surely,  the  spectacle  of  mortality,  however 
familiar — the  humblest  group  of  mourners, 
the  widower,  the  widow,  the  fatherless,  the 
childless,  the  brother,  the  sister,  the  friend, 
for   whom    the    Church    has    provided    the 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  219 

noblest  Burial  Office  in  the  world,  should 
not  be  robbed  of  it  by  a  heartless  reader. 

And,  in  reference  to  what  has  been  already 
said  about  former  days,  I  cannot  too  ear- 
nestly entreat  you  to  be  on  your  guard 
against  reserving  your  reverence  and  pains 
and  sympathy  for  the  well-to-do,  while  you 
slur  over  your  sacred  duties  in  the  cases  of 
the  humbler  classes. 

Do  not  suppose  that  I  am  urging  an 
artificial,  over-emphatic,  declamatory,  dra- 
matic straining  after  effect  in  any  case.  All 
I  urge  is  reverence,  reality,  sympathy,  pains. 
But,  if  in  any  case  more  than  ordinary  pains 
be  taken,  let  it  be  for  the  poorest.  You 
have  to-morrow  a  baptism,  a  churching,  a 
marriage,  a  burial,  not  from  a  wealthy 
tradesman's  mansion,  nor  from  ''  the  Hall," 
but  from  the  home  of  a  v*^orking  man,  from 
the  hovel  of  poverty — may  be,  from  the 
workhouse.  You  will  not  see,  in  the  bap- 
tismal group  or  marriage  party,  silks  or 
satins,  jewels  or  costly  array.  *'  The  bride- 
groom's joy"  will  draw  forth  no  '^golden 
fee."      Your    mourners    will   not    follow   a 


2  20  LETTERS   TO  A 

hearse  with  nodding  plumes — it  will  not  be  a 
grand  funeral.  But  the  infant's  clothes  will 
tell  of  the  parents'  poverty — its  christening 
robe  will  be  its  mother's  shawl.  The  mother 
to  be  churched  will  be  barely  clad,  and 
she  will  kneel  perhaps  solitarily  in  God's 
house  to  offer  up  her  thanks.  There  will 
be  brought  to  you  a  corpse,  for  the  decent 
burial  of  which  there  has  been  a  hard 
struggle — or  the  dead  may  be  lying  within 
a  parish  coffin.  Now,  if  ever,  be  reverent, 
hearty,  painstaking.  Cherish  sympathy, 
and  show  it.  Do  your  very  best — simply, 
naturally,  lovingly,  with  the  Church's  holy 
offices. 

Do  it  because  it  is  your  duty.  Do  it 
because  your  heart  prompts  you  to  it;  for 
these  opportunities  are  golden,  and  the  loss 
of  them  great.  As  you  know  but  too  well, 
in  not  a  few  cases  you  have  parishioners 
at  church  on  these  occasions  who  seldom 
enter  it  at  other  times.  Take  the  Bap- 
tismal Service  and  the  Burial  Service — what 
sermons  are  wrapped  up  in  them  !  to  say 
nothing  of  the  actual  words  read  from  Holy 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  221 

Scripture.  What  words  of  Christ  more 
likely  to  touch  a  mother's  or  a  father's 
heart,  or  to  remind  sponsors  of  responsi- 
bilities too  often  undertaken  to  be  forgotten, 
than — **  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come 
unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven — "  and  the  record  of 
the  Evangelist — "  He  took  them  up  in  His 
arms,  and  blessed  them"?  Oh!  there  is 
more  than  Registration  here  !  It  is  a  grand 
opportunity  to  have  people,  more  or  less 
with  softened  hearts,  brought  to  listen  to 
the  words  of  God  by  St.  Paul,  on  sin,  death, 
the  resurrection,  the  end,  and  the  glory. 
How  much  of  gospel  truth  have  they  heard 
who  have  heard  but  this  chapter  read — 
following  upon  the  Burial  psalms  ! 

Consider  further  the  help  to  your  minister 
among  the  working  classes  and  the  poor. 
They  see,  in  the  case  of  their  own  clergy- 
man, at  any  rate,  a  practical  contradiction 
to  the  allegation  that  we  care  only  for  the 
rich  and  well-to-  do .  The  roughest  working 
man — whose  prejudices  against  religion  are, 
alas !  too  often  grounded  on  our  defects  and 


2  22  LETTERS   TO  A 

faults — will  be  half  gained — not  to  you  only, 
but  to  God,  if  he  is  made  to  feel,  "  The 
parson  married  me,  or  churched  my  wife, 
or  christened  my  child,  or  buried  my  dead, 
just  as  if  I  had  been  a  rich  man,  or  the 
Squire,  or  '  my  Lord '  himself.  He  does 
not  look  for  the  broadcloth  and  the  silks 
and  satins  ;  he's  a  working  man's  friend — a 
poor  man's  clergyman." 

Let  me  sum  up  in  a  sentence.  I  am 
going  to  use  an  undignified — you  may  say  a 
coarse  word.  But  I  will  write  it  as  I  should 
write  it  if  these  letters  were  never  to  go 
beyond  manuscript,  and  never  to  meet  the 
public  eye.  Avoid  clerical  flunkeyisfn — the 
worship  of  rank  and  title — above  all,  of 
money.  Hateful  in  all,  it  is  despicable  and 
detestable  in  a  clergyman,  who  ministers 
for  Him  who  said,  "  To  the  poor  the  gospel 
is  preached."  The  minister  of  Christ  should 
be  the  last  man  to  show  any  approach  to 
tuft  himting,  or  the  worship  of  wealth. 

You  will  be  sometimes  pained  by  the 
patent  and  offensive  heartlessness  of  the 
baptismal  or  marriage  party ;  by  a  frivolous 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  223 

and  jaunty  irreverence.  It  may  not,  at  all 
times,  be  such  as  to  justify  direct  or  sharp 
rebuke ;  but  there  will  be  very  few  cases  in 
which  you  will  not  succeed,  before  the  end 
of  the  service,  in  subduing  such  spirit  and 
conduct.  Go  through  the  service  with  great 
gravity  and  solemnity.  If  necessary,  look 
the  triflers  fully  and  steadily  in  the  face. 

The  Marriage  Service,  read  devoutly,  will 
break  down  the  hardest.  I  have  seldom,  if 
ever,  found  it  falL  And  be  sure,  when  you 
have  registered  the  marriage,  not  to  let 
them  leave  the  vestry  without  a  kindly  word, 
and  a  shake  of  the  hand,  and  a  hearty  ''  God 
bless  you  !  "  I  fear  that  too  often  we  let 
them  go  without  this — as  if  we  had  done  our 
work,  and  had  no  further  care  about  the 
matter.  We  are  polite  and  attentive  to  the 
rich.  The  true  gentleman — much  more  the 
Christian  minister — is  tested  by  courtesy 
and  kindness  to  the  artisan  and  the  poor. 
These  points  may  seem  to  be  trifles.  But 
they  tell.  They  will  be  long  remembered. 
The  working  classes  and  the  poor  feel  them 
keenly. 


2  24    LETTERS  TO  A  YOUNG   CLERGYMAN. 

If  the  size  of  your  parish  at  all  admits 
of  it,  follow  up  these  services  by  a  pastoral 
visit  to  the  mother  whom  you  churched,  the 
parents  whose  child  you  have  baptized,  the 
bride  and  bridegroom  whom  you  have  joined 
together  in  marriage,  and  the  mourners 
whose  dead  you  have  buried. 

Yours  faithfully, 

John  C.  Miller. 


XII. 

Miscellaneous  Counsels. 

My  dear  Brother, — This  my  last  letter 
will  be  devoted  to  a  few  miscellaneous  points 
of  practical  importance  for  your  usefulness 
and  happiness. 

Let  me  speak  to  you  first  of  your  Rela- 
tion to  your  Incumbent.  Happy  is  the  young 
clergyman  whose  first  curacy  is  under  a 
spiritually-minded,  experienced,  and  able 
minister  of  Jesus  Christ — one  from  whose 
piety,  earnestness,  ability,  and  method  he 
may  learn  much,  and  who  will  treat  him  with 
the  courtesy  of  a  gentleman,  the  confidence 
of  a  friend,  and  the  sympathy  of  a  brother. 
Happy,  too,  if  he  be  a  teacher  and  preacher 
from  whose  sermons  he  may  derive  instruc- 
tion, not  only  for  his  own  spiritual  edifica- 

15 


226  LETTERS   TO  A 

tion  but,  for  suggestions  in  his  work  as  a 
preacher. 

The  relation  is  a  delicate  one,  and  needs, 
more  or  less,  mutual  respect,  confidence,  and 
forbearance. 

Be  loyal  to  your  incumbent.  Identify 
yourself  with  him  and  uphold  his  influence 
among  your  people.  He  will  have  his  faults 
and  failings  ;  and  sometimes  these  may  be 
a  trial  to  you.  He  may  have  his  enemies  in 
the  parish,  or  at  best,  some  who  have  pre- 
judices against  him,  and  who  will  be  ready 
to  disparage  his  plans,  preaching,  and  even 
his  character.  There  may  be  a  party 
against  him.  There  may  be  persons  so  far 
wanting  in  good  feeling  and  good  taste  as 
to  try  to  draw  you  into  their  habit  of  dis- 
paragement. If  you  cannot  honestly  speak 
in  his  praise,  be  silent.  Never  allow  him  to 
be  talked  about  in  your  visits,  if  it  be  not 
in  terms  of  respect.  I  do  not  mean  that  he 
may  not  deserve  all  that  is  said  against 
him.  But  disparagement  should  not  come 
from  you,  his  fellow-worker.  Say  nothing, 
do    nothing,    listen    to    nothing,    calculated 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  227 

to   undermine    his    influence    or    to    lower 
him. 

It  would  be  well  were  it  not  needful  to 
give  you  counsel  under  the  possibility  of 
graver  danger  in  this  relationship.  There 
are  not  wanting  instances  of  painful  differ- 
ences between  incumbent  and  assistant 
curate  which  lead  to  rupture  between  them, 
and,  as  a  consequence,  to  party  feeling  and 
party  action  in  the  parish.  It  has  always 
appeared  to  me — and  my  experience  is  now 
not  a  short  one — that,  when  a  curate  finds 
that  he  cannot  work  comfortably  with  his 
incumbent — although  the  fault  may  be  with 
the  latter — it  is  the  duty  of  the  former  to 
seek  another  post  of  labour,  always  except- 
ing those  very  rare  and  painful  cases  in 
which  to  resign  the  curacy  may  involve  the 
appearance  of  shrinking  from  investigations 
necessary  for  the  vindication  of  personal 
character.  Under  any  other  circumstances, 
neither  self-will  nor  pride  should  induce  a 
young  clergyman  to  be  a  party  to  strife 
which  may  last  long,  create  public  scandal, 
and  do  much  mischief  to  the  cause  of  true 


228  LETTERS   TO  A 

religion  in  the  parish.  It  is  far  more  in 
accordance  with  the  spirit  and  the  dictates 
of  Christian  duty  to  give  way,  even  at  much 
personal  inconvenience  and  sacrifice.  It 
may  be  a  painful  trial,  but  to  meet  it  in 
such  a  spirit  will  be  followed  by  a  blessing. 
You  may  see  that  you  could  readily  gather 
round  you  a  party ;  and,  as  I  have  said, 
your  incumbent  may  be  in  the  wrong.  But 
an  open  quarrel  in  a  parish  between  two 
ministers  of  God,  who  should  be  working 
together  in  harmony,  is  so  great  a  mischief 
and  so  grave  a  scandal,  that  it  is  to  be 
avoided  at  any  sacrifice,  short  of  the  sacri- 
fice of  character.  An  **  incumbent's  party" 
and  a  **  curate's  party"  maybe  the  means 
of  stopping,  for  awhile,  all  spiritual  good. 

If  your  incumbent  be  a  kind  and  genial 
man,  ready  to  welcome  your  confidence, 
encourage  his  counsels  and  his  criticisms. 
Ask  for  hints.  Tell  him  your  difficulties. 
Do  not  wince  if  he  points  out  faults  in  your 
sermons  or  otherwise.  If  he  be  a  thoughtful 
and  able  preacher,  you  may  gain  many  use- 
ful  lessons   and   hints    from    his    style   and 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  229 

manner  of  preaching.  And  perhaps  it  is 
unavoidable  that  you  should,  in  some 
measure,  unconsciously  catch  something  of 
his  manner.  But,  should  you  be  curate  to 
the  ablest  preacher  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, do  not  so  far  set  him  up  as  your  model 
as  to  lose  your  own  individuality  and  origi- 
nality. Do  not  be  a  mere  copyist.  Culti- 
vate your  own  gifts,  and  be  natural.  You 
see  how  it  is  among  poets.  It  is  one  thing 
to  catch  something  of  the  spirit  of  Tennyson. 
It  is  another — as  many  a  poetaster  shows  us 
now-a-days — to  pour  out  a  little  Tennyson 
and  a  great  deal  of  water.  A  painter,  a 
sculptor,  or  architect  studies  the  works  of  the 
greatest  masters  ;  but  we  look  for  him  to 
give  us  something  better  than  a  mere  repro- 
duction of  another  man's  picture,  statue,  or 
building. 

Let  me  counsel  you  also  to  be  upon  your 
guard  against  restlessness^  especially  in  eager 
haste  for  preferment.  "  I  never  got  any- 
thing I  asked  for,"  said  a  querulous  clergy- 
man to  Bishop  Blomfield.  **  And  I,"  replied 
Bishop   Blomfield,    **  never   asked   for   any- 


230  LETTERS  TO  A 

thing  I  got."     I  do  not  mean  that  it  is  not 
natural  and  lawful  for  a  young  clergyman 
to  look  forward  hopefully  for  an   indepen- 
dent  position   and  for  a  competency ;    nor 
that  he  is  called  on  to  have  no  aspiration 
beyond  a  curacy.     Nor  do  I  mean   to  lay 
down  as  an  iron  rule  that  he  may  not  him- 
self take  the  initiative  in  putting  his  name 
before  a  patron,  either  directly  or  through 
influential   friends.     But    I    mean    that   he 
should   avoid   a   restless  spirit,   and   rather 
watch  for  God  to  open  a  door  than  be  always 
striving  to  open  a  door  for  himself.     You 
can  hardly  realize  the  strength  and  happi- 
ness it  will  give  you  to  be  able  to  feel  con- 
fidently that  you  did  not  thriLst  yourself  into 
a  post,  but  that  the  great  Bishop  and  Master 
clearly  opened  up  your  way.    Such  a  spirit 
He  will  honour  and  bless.     And  when  difli- 
culties  and  trials  arise,  it  will  brace  and  nerve 
and  comfort  you  to  remember  that  they  arise 
in  a  post  to  which  you  w^ere  clearly  called. 
There  are  many  cases  in  which  the  use  of 
means   may  be   lawful   and   wise.     But   let 
them  be  used  in  entire  dependence  on  God, 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  231 

in  entire  submission  to  His  will,  and  with 
an  absolute  acquiescence  in  disappointment. 
It  may  be  a  tempting  prospect,  it  may  be 
good  preferment,  but  you  will  not  have  it 
unless  it  is  your  niche.  And  this  God 
knows  best,  and  not  you.  Never  toady 
patrons — bishops  or  others — in  hope  of  their 
patronage,  however  true  it  may  be  that 
there  will  be  cases  in  which  you  may 
modestly  put  your  wishes  and  claims  before 
them.  I  remember  to  have  heard  of  a 
clergyman  who  acquired  the  soubriquet  of 
*'  Solicitor-General." 

To  pass  to  another  point.  Popularity  may 
be  your  lot.  You  may  not  have  sought  it, 
nor  even  expected  it.  You  may  find  that 
God  has  given  you  pulpit  gifts  of  which  you 
were,  as  a  layman,  quite  unconscious.  Sud- 
denly you  find  your  congregations  large. 
It  soon  reaches  your  ears  that  your  preach- 
ing is  filling  the  church.  Compliments — 
flattery — pour  in.  Be  on  your  guard,  lest 
praise  be  poison.  Elements  of  popularity 
are  elements  of  great — may  be  fatal — 
danger.     Go  back  to  God,  and  while  you 


232  LETTERS   TO  A 

give  Him  thanks  for  His  gifts,  as  remember- 
ing that  you  have  nothing  which  you  have 
not  received,  pray  earnestly  for  grace,  as  re- 
membering that  your  gifts  bring  with  them 
the  most  solemn  responsibility.  Pray  that 
your  popularity  may  be  consecrated  to  His 
glory.  Be  careful  not  to  strain  at  the  reten- 
tion of  popularity  by  flashy  claptrap  and 
bombast.  Be  on  your  guard  against  women' s 
flattery.  Remember  that  popularity  does 
not  always  mean  true  success.  Distinguish 
between  the  intoxicating  flattery  which 
tells  you  ''  What  a  fine  sermon  you  gave  us 
yesterday!"  and  the  grateful  recognition 
of  God's  message  of  counsel  and  comfort 
from  your  lips  which  will  sometimes  come  to 
you  from  those  to  whom  God  has  made  His 
own  word  a  word  of  power  and  blessing. 

You  will  make  a  grave  mistake  if  you 
look  upon  popularity  as  the  measure  of  use- 
fulness. No  doubt  the  gift  of  preaching  is 
a  great  gift,  and  a  well-grounded  popularity 
a  cause  for  thankfulness.  But,  not  to  speak 
of  the  many  other  functions  of  your  ministry, 
the  popular  preacher  is  by  no  means  neces- 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  233 

sarily  the  most  useful  preacher.  His  preach- 
ing may  be  very  empty.  It  may  be  flashy 
and  frothy.  It  may  tickle  ''itching  ears," 
and  be  ''  but  as  a  pleasant  song,"  or  as  the 
playing  well  upon  an  instrument.  There 
are  thousands  of  faithful,  earnest,  hard- 
working ministers,  who  have  no  shining  or 
popular  gifts,  either  in  or  out  of  the  pulpit, 
of  whom  I  firmly  believe  that  by  quiet, 
persevering  labour,  and  by  the  eloquent 
rhetoric  of  consistent  lives,  they  are  doing  a 
far  greater,  more  thorough  and  more  lasting 
work,  albeit  they  will  never  be  known  to 
fame,  than  some  others  who  are  run  after  as 
great  preachers.  With  moderate  pulpit  gifts, 
diligently  used  ;  by  faithful,  unpretentious, 
earnest,  loving  preaching ;  by  vigilant  and 
untiring  oversight  as  pastors ;  and  by  holy 
living,  many  who  are  but  as  the  **  rank  and 
file"  in  the  army  of  God's  ministers,  are 
doing  the  great  mass  of  the  work  in  our 
teeming  towns  and  in  our  country  villages. 
Discourage  among  your  people  the  notion 
that  the  sermon  is  everything.  I  do  not 
disparage  God's  great  ordinance  of  preach- 


234  LETTERS   TO  A 

ing".  I  do  not  undervalue  great  pulpit 
abilities  in  any  man.  Great  preachers  have 
done  great  work,  and  left  behind  them  great 
results.  But  it  betokens  a  most  unhealthy 
state  of  things  in  minister  and  people  when 
church-going  means  merely  sermon-hearing ; 
when  the  worship  of  Almighty  God — the 
noblest  occupation  of  the  noblest  intellects, 
whether  of  men  or  angels,  whether  now  or 
throughout  eternity — is  put  into  a  secondary 
place,  and  a  great  oration  from  the  pulpit 
regarded  as  the  one  thing  to  be  looked  for. 

But,  if  God  has  given  you  popular  gifts, 
remember  that  they  are  gifts  which  bring 
with  them  great  and  constant  need  for 
watchfulness.  You,  of  all  men,  must  watch 
against  vanity,  pride,  self-exaltation.  **  By 
the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am,"  must 
be  inwrought  into  the  very  texture  of  your 
heart.  And  you  must  strive  in  the  prepara- 
tion, the  delivery,  and  the  retrospect  of  every 
sermon,  to  realize  that  unless  the  blessing  of 
the  Spirit  of  life  be  upon  your  preaching, 
you  can  have  no  true  success.  Amid  your 
crowds  of  followers,  and  with  all  your  genius. 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  235 

imagination,  and  fluency, — with  all  your  logic 
and  all  your  tropes, — not  a  conscience  will 
be  pricked,  not  a  heart  touched,  unless  the 
arm  of  the  Lord  be  revealed." 

It  is  recorded  as  the  result  of  Mr.  Simeon's 
long  and  wide  experience,  that  the  men 
whom  he  had  seen  most  honoured  of  God 
were  men  of  moderate  gifts,  great  diligence, 
and  great  personal  piety. 

To  lay  yourself  out  for  popularity  is  utterly 
unworthy  of  you  as  a  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ.  But  there  will  come,  without  your 
seeking,  a  genuine,  well-grounded  popularity, 
in  the  best  sense,  from  your  loving,  pains- 
taking, and  self-denying  efforts  to  be  the 
shepherd  of  your  flock,  both  in  and  out  of 
the  pulpit,  watching  for  their  souls,  and 
seeking  not  theirs,  but  them ;  extending 
your  care  and  pains  and  sympathy  to  the 
poorest  as  well  as  to  the  great  folk  in  your 
parish.  They  will  soon  learn  to  tolerate  but 
average  preaching  from  your  lips,  if  they 
love  you  as  their  pastor — a  friend,  a  coun- 
sellor, a  comforter  in  their  times  of  need. 
You  may  be  a  poor  preacher  to  others  ;  you 


236  LETTERS  TO  A 

will  be  a  good  preacher  to  them.  Your  life 
and  work  will  help  your  sermons.  Your 
name  may  not  be  a  magnet  on  a  placard. 
But  your  sermons  will  tell  in  your  own 
parish. 

So  then,  when  you  hear  a  great  preacher, 
or  read  his  sermons,  be  not  down-hearted. 
You  may  serve  your  Master  and  feed  your 
flock  without  any  other  excellency  of  speech 
than  the  simple  excellency  of  your  message 
— the  good  news  of  God.  Give  God  and 
your  people  your  best,  as  preacher  and 
pastor,  and  you  shall  not  lack  blessing. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Breay,  of  Birmingham,  was 
a  striking  example  of  what  I  mean.  He  was 
not  intellectually  a  great  man,  nor,  oratori- 
cally,  a  great  preacher.  But,  in  the  heart  of 
Birmingham,  amid  hard-headed  and  shrewd 
men,  he  did  a  great  work  as  preacher  and 
pastor.  It  is  said  that  on  the  day  of  his  funeral 
the  then  Bishop  of  Worcester,  the  patron  of 
his  living,  passed  through  Birmingham ;  and 
that  he  was  so  struck  with  the  manifesta- 
tions of  public  sorrow,  that  although  not 
belonging   to   Mr.    Breay' s    theological   or 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAA.  237 

ecclesiastical  school,  he  then  and  there 
determined  to  nominate  as  his  successor  a 
like-minded  clergyman.  This  was  true 
popularity.  Mr.  Breay's  name  is  yet  fragrant 
in  Birmingham,  and  his  memory  blessed, 
and  his  work  lasting. 

I  pass  to  a  point  connected  with  your 
personal  temper  and  conduct.  It  is 
Richard  Cecil,  I  think,  who  says  that  a 
minister  should  be  tmqffendable.  It  is 
difficult,  very  difficult,  to  carry  out  his 
counsel.  But  the  counsel  is  very  wise. 
You  may  meet  with  discourtesies  and  even 
insults,  in  private  or  in  vestry  meetings, 
which  greatly  try  your  temper  and  charity. 
But  you  must  bear  much  for  the  sake  of 
your  ministry.  You  must  not  quarrel  with 
any  one  among  your  people,  if  you  can 
possibly  avoid  it.  You  must  bear  a  great 
deal,  however  sensitive  your  temperament. 
You  must  be  long-suffering  and  forgiving. 
For  the  man  who  has  been  rude  and  even 
insolent  is  one  of  your  flock.  You  must 
live  such  things  down.  Watch  your  oppor- 
tunity.    The  time  of  his  sickness  or  trouble 


238  LETTERS   TO  A 

may  come.  Show  that,  as  his  minister, 
you  can  rise  above  private  resentment.  If 
the  challenge,  ''  What  do  ye  more  than 
others?"  comes  home  to  all  Christians, 
much  more  to  you.  In  the  best  sense  of 
the  words,  "  Heap  coals  of  fire  on  his 
head."  Let  not  his  breach  of  duty  to  you 
induce  you  to  neglect  your  duty  to  him. 

Let  me  offer  another  counsel.  Get  good 
out  of  unfavourable  criticisms,  whether  upon 
your  preaching  or  anything  else.  Do  not 
thrust  them  aside  angrily  or  proudly,  as  if 
you  were  a  sacred  person  with  whom  no  one 
should  find  fault.  I  am  writing  freely  and 
familiarly,  to  give  a  younger  brother  any 
benefit  which  my  own  experience  may  enable 
me.  I  do  not  shrink,  therefore,  from  direct 
personal  allusion.  Having  lived  long  in  a 
public  position,  and  been  subject  to  much 
sharp  criticism  in  newspapers  and  from  other 
quarters,  I  can  look  back  and  say  that  very 
seldom,  if  ever,  has  there  been  no  ground 
for  the  unfavourable  criticism,  however  rough 
and  unkind,  sometimes,  the  spirit  and  the 
language  in  which  it  has  been  made.     There 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  239 

was — and  with  all  my  self-sensitiveness  and 
conceit,  I  was  obliged  to  own  it  to  myself — 
something  in  it.  My  critic  had  hit  a  blot. 
He  may  have  made  it  larger,  and  may  have 
hit  it  mercilessly ;  but  there  was  something  in 
it.     And  Burns'  words  have  come  home  : — 

"  0  wad  some  power  the  giftie  gie  us, 
To  see  oursels  as  others  see  us  ! 
It  wad  frae  monie  a  blunder  free  us, 
And  foolish  notion." 

We  then  see  very  different  selves,  but 
perhaps  truer. 

One  word  about  Secular  vieans  for  helping 
our  work. 

We  are  living  in  days  of  working  men's 
institutes,  penny  readings,  concerts,  etc.  I 
by  no  means  condemn  them,  wholesale  and 
indiscriminately.  As  far  as  they  help  us  in 
weaning  the  working  classes  and  the  poor 
from  low  and  immoral  recreations,  and  in 
showing  that  we  sympathize  with  them  and 
would  weld  all  classes  in  our  parish  together, 
foster  them  and  take  part  in  them.  But  keep 
them  jealously  in  a  subordinate  place.     They 


240  LETTERS   TO  A 

may  be  auxiliary  and  supplementary.  But 
they  are  not  our  proper  work,  nor  our  chief 
weapons.  They  may  bridge  the  chasm  be- 
tween us  and  some  classes  of  our  people, 
but  they  must  not  be  relied  on  as  the  first 
or  best  means.  For  God's  great  work — the 
saving  of  souls — we  have  God's  own  means 
and  God's  own  message — the  ministration 
of  His  Gospel.  Our  magnet  is  Christ 
crucified.  To  this  all  secular  means  must 
be  subordinate.  Beware  of  an  unspiritual- 
ized  ministry.  It  is  not  the  ministry  which 
you  have  **  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 
Give  first  things  their  first  place.  Keep 
all  others  down  in  their  due  subordination. 
We  are  not  ordained  to  be  caterers  for 
the  amusement  of  our  people,  but  to  be 
''  ambassadors  for  Christ."  You  will  never 
evangelize  your  parish  by  institutes,  or  read- 
ings, or  concerts.  **  The  weapons  of  our 
warfare  are  not  carnal." 

Another  counsel.  Make  it  pmi  of  your 
work  to  stir  tip  others  to  work.  In  a  large 
parish,  more  especially,  do  nothing  yourself 
which  you  can  get  other  fit  instruments  to 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  241 

do.  It  is  not  enough  that  you  make  general 
and  public  appeals  for  workers.  Learn  your 
people.  Keep  your  eye  on  individuals.  In 
this  way  get  together  district  visitors,  Sunday^, 
school  teachers,  secretaries,  and  treasurers. 
And  when  you  have  chosen  them  and  tried 
them,  and  they  have  stood  the  trial,  trust 
them.  Leave  them,  to  some  extent,  alone. 
Let  them  feel  their  responsibility.  If  they 
do  their  work  well  in  the  main,  do  not  insist 
on  its  being  done  exactly  in  your  own  way. 
Leave  room  for  the  play  of  their  individ- 
uality. A  good  servant  does  not  like  to 
be  followed  at  every  step  in  her  work, 
so  neither  does  a  good  worker.  If  your 
workers  are  worth  anything,  keep  a  general 
supervision  and  control,  but  do  not  keep 
them  in  leading-strings. 

Some  good  clergymen  have  too  much 
of  the  autocrat  in  them  with  their  fellow- 
workers.  I  am  not  asking  you  to  give 
up  the  reins.  But  don't  use  the  curb 
too  freely.  We  all  like  to  be  trusted. 
And  trust  often  makes  men  trustworthy. 
It    is    no    bad    test    of    your    own    ability 

16 


242  LETTERS   TO  A 

and  efficiency  as  a  worker,  that  you  call  out 
workers,  and  keep  them  happily  at  work. 

And  now  I  bring  my  letters  to  a  close. 
I  said  at  the  outset  that  I  had  not  under- 
taken to  write  a  treatise  on  the  Christian 
ministry,  but  only,  as  an  elder,  to  offer 
practical  counsels  to  a  younger  brother. 
My  aim  has  been  to  write  what  might  be 
offered  as  a  gift  volume  to  a  young  clergy- 
man on  the  day  of  his  ordination,  or  early  in 
his  ministry.  The  works  of  Burnet,  Baxter, 
Cecil,  Bridges,  Evans,  Burgon,  and  others, 
will  remain  as  the  great  manuals  for  young 
ministers.  If  I  have  ventured  to  throw 
together  a  few  hints  and  suggestions,  I 
excuse  my  presumption  on  the  ground  that, 
having  had  to  do,  during  all  but  the  whole 
of  a  long  ministry,  with  large  and  populous 
parishes,  in  which  nearly  every  kind  of 
ministerial  work  has  necessarily  fallen  on 
me,  I  have  thought  that  younger  brethren 
might  not  be  iMiwilling  to  weigh,  at  least, 
some  results  of  the  experience  of  one  whose 
work  is  well-nigh  done. 


YOUNG  CLERGYMAN.  243 

My  reader  may  have  a  long  life  of  work 
and  usefulness  before  him.  Let  me  urge 
him,  above  all  things,  not  to  merge  his 
care  for  his  own  spiritual  life  and  growth 
in  his  professional  duties  and  activity. 
Never  may  it  be  said  of  you,  my  brother, 
**They  made  me  the  keeper  of  the  vine- 
yards; but  my  own  vineyard  have  I  not 
kept.''  *'Save  thyself"  first— then  ''them 
that  hear  thee."  "  Dwell  "  th3^self  "  in  the 
secret  place  of  the  Most  High."  "  Abide  " 
thyself  " under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty." 
Live  in  Christ.  See  that  Christ  live  in  thee. 
"Be  filled  with  the  Spirit."  Enter  upon 
each  day's  ministry — its  privileges,  its  toils, 
its  anxieties,  its  conflicts,  its  hopes,  its  dis- 
appointments, its  joys,  its  sorrows — under 
the  "unction  from  the  Holy  One."  Walk 
in  close  fellowship  with  God.  "Tell  Jesus,' 
daily,  what  things  you  have  done  and  what 
things  you  have  taught.  Keep  before  you 
your  great  account.  As  under  the  great 
Master's  eye,  and  in  thought  of  the  great 
Master's  coming,  hear  His  charge  in  Paul's 
message  to  Archippus — "Take  heed  to  the 


2  44     LETTERS  TO  A  YOUNG  CLERGYMAN. 

ministry  which    thou    hast    received    in    the 
Lord,  that  thou  fulfil  it  "  (Col.  iii.  17). 
Yours  faithfully, 

John  C.  Miller. 


A  LECTURE  ON  PREACHING 

Delivered  in  the  Trophy-Room  of  St.  PauVs  Cathedral,  in 
March,  1874,  and  afterwards  re-delivered,  for  the 
Church  Homiletical  Society,  at  Oxford. 

In  offering-  to  you,  Gentlemen,  a  few  prac- 
tical remarks  upon  the  subject  before  us — 
in  doing  which  I  desire  to  stand  before  you 
simply  as  a  brother  among  brethren, — I 
cannot  forbear,  at  the  outset,  from  saying  a 
few  words  on  the  place  which  preaching  is 
to  occupy  among  the  functions  of  our  min- 
istry. And,  in  endeavouring  to  estimate 
this  aright,  I  turn  to  him  who  is,  next  to  the 
great  and  Divine  Master,  our  highest  earthly 
model — St.  Paul.  His  writings  prove  to 
demonstration  that,  if  any  one  had  asked 
St.  Paul  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  highest 
function  of  the  minister  of  Christ — what  it 
was  that,  at  times,  overwhelmed  him   with 


246  LETTERS   TO  A 

adoring  gratitude  to  the  grace  of  God  which 
called  him  to  be  an  apostle,  his  answer 
would  have  been,  the  commission  to  preach 
"the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.''  And 
if  I  do  not  dwell  upon  the  fact  that  Christ 
was  always  his  great  theme,  and  the  Holy- 
Ghost  his  strength  and  wisdom,  it  is  be- 
cause I  assume  that  this  will  be  admitted 
by  you  all. 

Neither  is  the  importance  of  this  function 
of  preaching  lessened,  by  any  means,  in  the 
present  day.  We  preachers  are  constantly 
hearing,  through  one  channel  and  another, 
complaints  about  sermons.  We  do  wisely 
to  weigh  these  strictures.  From  some  of 
them  we  may  learn  much  ;  others  are  unjust. 
We  are  asked  for  what  we  cannot  consent 
to  give. 

There  are  those  who  ask  for  semi-secular 
addresses.  We  are  to  give  interest  to  our 
sermons  by  a  spice  of  political  economy,  or 
geology,  or  talk  on  sanitary  matters.  But 
we  maintain  that  our  business  in  the  pulpit 
is  with  the  one  great  message,  and  that 
everything  which  does  not  directly  tend  to 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  247 

illustrate  this — without  in  the  slightest  degree 
throwing  it  into  the  shade — is  worse  than  a 
great  impertinence. 

It  is  clear  that  in  these  days  we  have  a 
rival,  and  a  very  formidable  rival,  in  the 
public  press.  Secular  newspapers  discuss 
theological,  ecclesiastical,  and  moral  subjects 
with  great  ability ;  and  our  homes  are  filled 
to  repletion  with  religious  books  and  peri- 
odicals. There  was  a  time,  and  that  too  at 
a  not  very  remote  date,  when  in  hundreds,  I 
might  almost  say  thousands,  of  parishes  in 
England,  the  sermon  for  the  Sunday,  sup- 
plemented by  the  suggestions  to  be  found  in 
two  or  three  good  books,  was  the  sole  supply 
of  religious  teaching.  In  our  own  day  it  is 
very  different.  Things  are  entirely  changed. 
Men  read  for  themselves.  We  are  flooded 
with  religious  books,  good,  bad,  and  in- 
different, at  the  cheapest  possible  rate. 

Let  me  speak  first  of  country  parishes. 
I  am  addressing  some  who  may  hereafter 
find  themselves  in  county  curacies.  You 
will  make  a  grievous  mistake — even  those 
of  you  who  may  have  left  college  with  the 


248  LETTERS   TO  A 

highest  University  distinctions — if  you  think 
that  anything  will  do  for  these  people.     Far 
otherwise.     As  the  severest  test  of  a  curate's 
powerj    of    preaching,    I    should    put   him 
through  the  ordeal  of  preaching  to  a  country 
congregation,  on   a  very   hot   afternoon    in 
August,  during  the  time  of  harvest,  and  say 
to  him,   "  Will  you  undertake  to  keep  that 
congregation  awake?  "     The  man  who  can 
succeed   in    doing    that   is   a    much     more 
effective  preacher   than    is   commonly   sup- 
posed.    It  is   no  easy  task.     If  I  had   the 
two  duties  before  me  next  Sunday,  I  should 
feel  it  easier  to  preach  before  the  University 
than  to   preach  to   rustics    in    August,    for 
twenty  minutes  ;  to  get  something  into  their 
heads  and  hearts  which  they   would   carry 
away.     Do  not  think  then  that  anything  will 
do  for  the  poor  or  for  rustics. 

It  has  been  well  said,  that  the  work  of 
a  country  clergyman  is  threefold: — '*  You 
have  your  mother's  tongue  to  learn ;  a  poor 
man's  heart  to  anatomise;  and  a  poor  man's 
brain  to  dissect." 
With  regard  to  dangers  particularly  inci- 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  249 

dent  to  preachers  in  large  towns.  The 
principal  one  consists  in  this : — viz.,  the 
great  extent  to  which  secular  and  semi- 
secular  w^ork  accumulates  upon  us.  It  was 
truly  remarked  by  Professor  Blunt,  ''  There 
was  a  period,  and  almost  within  my  own 
memory,  when  a  notion  prevailed,  that  the 
duties  of  the  clergy  were  the  duties  of  the 
Sunday,  and  little  more ;  but  I  am  not  clear 
that  the  moment  is  not  come  when  the 
danger  lies  the  other  way  ;  and  whether  the 
pastor  of  the  parish,  yielding  to  the  im- 
portunate demands  of  an  overwhelming 
population,  does  not  occupy  so  much  of  his 
time,  in  the  '  goings  into  the  streets  and 
lanes  of  the  city,'  as  trenches  on  his  studies 
and  his  sermons.  The  one  should  be  done, 
'^\h.Q  other  assuredly  not  left  undone.* 

Our  sermons  suffer.  This  semi-secularism 
disturbs,  distracts,  aye,  and  in  a  great  many 
cases  well-nigh  engrosses,  the  time  of 
clergymen,  so  as  to  leave  them  no  leisure 
for  pulpit  preparation  at  all. 

*  Quoted  in  ''Papers  on  Preaching  and  Public  Speaking," 
by  a  Wykehamist,  p.  25. 


250  LETTERS  TO  A 

Let  me  not  seem  to  exalt  preaching  un- 
duly. I  most  heartily  and  fully  recognise 
the  worship  of  Almighty  God  in  church  as 
the  first  object  in  going  to  His  house,  and 
in  ministering  to  our  people.  But  I  do  say 
most  emphatically  and  earnestly,  in  the 
arrangement  of  your  time,  let  ever^lhing,  as 
far  as  possible,  give  way  to  pulpit  prepara- 
tion. If  something  must  needs  suffer,  it 
must  not  be  the  sermon,  as  long  as 
preaching  is  what  it  is  according  to  the 
ordinance  of  God.  Consider  the  great- 
ness and  the  advantages  of  pulpit  oppor- 
tunities. There  must  be — especially  in 
these  days — meditation,  study,  time,  for  our 
sermons. 

And  we  must  take  a  true  view  of  the 
dignity  of  the  pulpit.  This  will  humble  us, 
and  not  puff  us  up.  When  we  realize  our 
position  as  Christ's  ambassadors;  that  we 
are  fellow-workers  with  God;  that,  in  the 
mysterious  arrangements  of  God's  grace, 
there  is  a  real  connection — only,  of  course, 
an  instrumental  connection — between  the  sal- 
vation of  souls  eternally  and  every  sermon 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  251 

we  deliver,  surely  we  must  have  a  deeply 
solemn  and  by  no  means  self-exalting  view 
of  our  work. 

Let  us  now  go  into  practical  details. 

First,  I  will  go  with  the  young  preacher 
into  his  study.  And,  while  there,  let  him 
remember  that,  for  the  great  end  of  preaching 
— the  conversion  and  edification  of  souls — he 
is  dependent  upon  supernatural  power  :  that 
this  power  is  not  in  himself.  Therefore — 
most  earnestly  and  affectionately  "would  I 
say  it — before  you  begin  the  work  of  pre- 
paration, go  down  upon  your  knees.  Aye, 
and  when  you  have  finished  your  preparation 
— do  not  think  me  superstitious — take  the 
very  manuscript  or  notes  themselves,  and 
spread  them  before  God,  sanctifying  them 
by  prayer.  And  when  you  are  in  the  pulpit, 
both  before  and  after  the  delivery  of  God's 
message,  the  more  you  throw  yourself  out 
of  self  into  the  strength  and  wisdom  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  praying  Him  to  give  you 
soundness,  faithfulness,  unction,  freshness, 
fertility,  facility,  freedom,  acceptance  with 
the  people — the  more  will  you  preach  to  the 


252  LETTERS   TO  A 

comfort   of  your   own    soul,    and  the  more 
God  will  bless  you. 

But  not  only  when  you  are  in  your  study 
are  you  to  be  thinking  of  your  sermons. 
One  secret  of  becoming  effective  preachers 
is,  never  to  let  your  pulpit  be  long  out  of 
your  sight.  *'  We  can  only  account  for  this 
exhaustless  flow  of  fresh  discourses  from  the 
fact  that  these  truly  great  preachers  spent 
much  time  in  general,  and  comparatively 
little  in  special  preparation.  There  were 
two  books  never  out  of  their  hands — the 
Bible  and  the  human  heart.  These  they 
read  continually.  The  leaves  of  these  two 
great  volumes  lay  open  before  them  by  night 
and  by  day.  All  other  books  were  but 
tributaries,  which  brought,  like  King  Solo- 
mon's navy,  sometimes  gold  and  sometimes 
apes  and  peacocks.  But  the  Bible  and  the 
human  heart  were  the  reservoir;  to  these 
they  went,  and  therefore  their  supply  of 
spiritual  truth  never  failed."  *  To  this  end, 
study  human  nature ;    it  is  of  little  use  to 

*  "The  Pastor  and  the  Parish,"  by  Rev.  John  B.  Heard, 
M.A.,  p.  97. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  253 

Study  books  only.  This  makes  preaching  dry. 
Study  human  nature.  AVe  must  be  students 
of  books.  But  our  best  storehouse  is  the 
Bible  and  the  human  heart.  Study  man 
at  all  times,  in  all  places,  and  in  all  circum- 
stances—  in  railway  carriages,  in  drawing- 
rooms,  in  cottages,  in  garrets,  by  sick  beds, 
in  houses  of  mourning.  The  pastoral  work 
is  so  great  a  help  to  preaching.  It  will 
suggest  many  a  subject,  and  give  you  many 
a  text  and  many  a  sermon. 

I  remember  that,  many  years  ago,  when  I 
was  a  young  clergyman,  and  in  the  habit  of 
preaching  two  written  sermons,  I  was  in  the 
heat  of  writing  when  I  was  summoned  unex- 
pectedly to  a  sick  bed.  I  confess  that  the 
old  Adam  did  rise  within  me  for  a  moment. 
I  wished  this  person  had  not  been  ill  at  that 
particular  time,  or,  at  all  events,  that  I  had 
not  been  sent  for.  But  I  went,  and  found 
afterwards  that  my  time  had  not  been  lost. 
I  came  back  all  the  better  for  my  visit. 
Depend  upon  it,  pastoral  visitation,  in  all 
its  varieties,  will  give  abundance  of  material 
for  pulpit  preparation,  which  will  in  vain  be 


254  LETTERS  TO   A 

sought  for  from  books.     And  in  these  days 
of  shaky  faith  and  of  scepticism,  one  of  the 
strongest    evidences   of    the   truth     of    the 
Gospel  is  the  power  of  God's  grace  in  the 
afflicted,   the   sick,   and  the  dying.     I  told 
the  working  men  at  the  Brighton  Congress 
some  time  since,  and  I  now  repeat  it,  that 
the  four  happiest  people  I  have  ever  seen  in 
my  life — without   a  single  exception — were 
four     bedridden     sick    women — all     bright 
Christians,    not    only    not   murmurers,    but 
joyful  sufferers.     Depend  upon  it,  when  our 
convictions  are  shaken  by  scepticism  ;  when 
even  the  deep  arguments  of  Butle*r  and  the 
lucid    arguments   of    Paley   fail    to   satisfy 
doubts,    or   to   answer   dififlcult  suggestions 
which   present    themselves,    we   shall   often 
find,    in    our    pastoral   visiting,    convincing 
exhibitions   of  the   reality  of  God's  grace, 
and  abundant   testimony  to  the  power  and 
faithfulness  of  the  God  of  the  promises,  to 
the  preciousness  of  Christ,  and  to  the  com- 
fort  of  the   Holy   Ghost.     We   shall  come 
back  exclaiming,    *'  There  is  no  other  God 
that  can  deliver  after  this  sort." 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN. 


255 


See  to  it  then  that  you  draw  all  your 
studies  this  way.  Lay  under  contribution 
everything  which  you  read.  Read  your 
daily  or  weekly  newspaper  with  an  eye  to 
your  sermons.  Learn  to  look  at  men  and 
things  with  a  non-professional  eye — as  men 
of  intellect  and  wit  and  power  of  writing 
see  them.  Look  at  them  often  from  a  lay- 
man's standpoint.  Many  and  many  a  hint, 
I  can  assure  you,  I  have  gained  for  my 
sermons  from  reading  my  newspaper,  as 
well  when  agreeing  with,  as  when  differing 
from,  the  writer.  **  Let  us  not  then  make 
any  distinction,  but  say  that  there  is  a 
general  kind  of  preparation,  a  profound  and 
continuous  study  of  the  congregation,  of 
human  life,  of  our  own  hearts,  and  of  the 
Bible ;  a  habit  of  mental  discipline,  and  of 
arranging  ideas  that  may  pass  the  mind, 
which  will  never  leave  the  preacher  at  a 
loss  in  a  familiar  address  or  a  simple  expo- 
sition of  Scripture."  * 

Never  take  up  the  fanatical  notion  that 
study  is  unnecessary.     The  promise  of  the 

*  Vinet — quoted  in  "  The  Pastor  and  the  Parish,"  p.  96. 


256  LETTERS  TO  A 

Holy  Ghost  (Mark  xiii.  ii),  and  the  precept 
which  accompanied  it — "  Take  no  thought 
beforehand  what  ye  shall  speak,  neither  do 
ye  premeditate" — was  given  for  special 
circumstances  to  a  particular  class  of  men. 
It  is  not  a  general  promise  applicable,  under 
all  circumstances,  to  you  and  to  me. 
Richard  Cecil  says,  we  may  expect  a  special 
blessing  "to  accompany  truth,  but  not  to 
supersede  labour."  Speaking  of  those  who 
seemed  to  expect  just  the  contrary,  he  adds, 
"  I  have  been  cured  by  observing  how  these 
men  preach,  and  I  have  often  heard  such 
talk  nonsense  by  the  hour."  But,  with  all 
your  study,  beware  lest  your  sermons  lose 
freshness  and  bloom  and  unction.  We  want 
the  lamp,  but  not  the  smell  of  it.  The 
cultivation  of  our  talents,  be  they  many  or 
few,  is  absolutely  necessary.  There  have 
been  a  few  men  who  have  been  good  and 
great  preachers  without  much  study  or  art ; 
and  there  is  a  large  class  of  men  whom  no 
study  will  ever  make  great  preachers  :  but 
a  man  who  possesses  great  gifts  may  im- 
prove them  by  careful  study.     And  many  a 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  257 

man,  who  would  otherwise  be  perhaps  almost 
useless — almost  intolerable — as  a  preacher, 
from  lack  of  particular  gifts  in  that  direction, 
may,  by  diligent  and  prayerful  attention, 
cultivate  the  little  measure  of  talent  which 
he  has,  and  ultimately  prove  a  useful  minister 
of  Christ. 

There  is  an  oft-told  story  of  the  present 
eloquent  Prime  Minister,  that  when  he  first 
attempted  to  speak  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons nobody  listened.  He  said,  '*  The  day 
shall  come  when  you  shall  hear  me;  "  and, 
as  we  all  know,  that  day  has  come.  Some 
of  us  present  remember  good  Bishop  Villiers. 
He  used  to  say  that,  when  he  first  began 
extempore  preaching,  he  completely  broke 
down.  It  was  only  by  continual  persever- 
ance in  the  simple  schoolroom  expositions, 
that  he  attained  to  be  one  of  the  most  useful 
and  acceptable  preachers  in  London,  and 
one  who,  under  God's  blessing,  has  left  his 
mark  on  many  souls. 

We  are  still,. remember,  in  the  study.  We 
come  next  to  the  choice  of  texts — a  very 
important  point ;  and,  when  you  have  been 

17 


258  LETTERS  TO  A 

many  years  In  the  ministry,  by  no  means  an 
easy  one.  Bishop  Burnet,  in  his  work  on 
**  The  Pastoral  Care,"  says— *'A  sermon 
should  be  made  for  a  text,  and  not  a  text 
for  a  sermon."  There  was  once  upon  a 
time  at  Oxford — a  long  while  ago  now — a 
certain  undergraduate,  who,  if  the  examiners 
had  allowed  to  be  a  candidate  for  Holy 
Orders  sooner  than  they  did,  instead  of 
plucking  and  plucking  and  plucking  him, 
till  the  poor  man  had  scarcely  a  feather  left, 
would  have  fallen  short  of  the  mark  in  this 
respect.  He  had  his  first  sermon  written 
long  before  he  passed  ''  Greats  "  at  any  rate 
— probably  **  Smalls  " — and  a  friend  asked 
him  "What's  your  text?"  He  had  not 
thought  about  a  text.  Doubtless  the 
sermon  turned  out  somewhat  discursive, 
however  orthodox. 

First,  then,  as  a  rule,  the  choice  of  a  text 
should  not  be  sudden.  Choose  a  text  some 
time  before  you  preach  upon  it,  in  order  that 
you  may  have  time  to  think  it  well  out.  As 
a  rule,  ''write  late."  I  do  not  advise  you 
to   write   your   sermon    on   the    Monday   or 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  259 

Tuesday    for   the    following    Sunday.     And 
here  I  am  borne  out  by  Archdeacon  Evans, 
who,    in   his    *' Bishopric    of    Souls,"    says, 
**  Strike  it   off  at  a  heat."     Go   into   your 
pulpit  on  Sunday  morning  with  the  sermon 
thoroughly  fresh    in    your  mind  and  heart. 
Again,   do  not  be  ambitious  in   the   choice 
of  texts.     Choose  plain,  full  texts.     There 
are  some  texts  which  almost  preach  them- 
selves.    It  is  very  desirable,  and  it  will  be 
found  greatly  to    facilitate   preaching,  that 
a  beginner  should  take  grand  and  leading 
texts  of  Scripture,  containing  great  truths  of 
the  Gospel,  or  bearing  especially  on  practical 
life.     It  will  be  safer  for  you  too,  generally 
— and  especially  for  beginners — not  to  try 
to  preach  upon  odd  texts,  but  rich,  massive 
texts — as,  for  example,  '*  The  grace  of  God 
that  bringeth  salvation  hath  appeared  to  all 
men,"  etc.  (Titus  ii.) ;    or,    "Seek   ye   the 
Lord  while  He  may  be  found,"  etc.  (Isa.  Iv.) 
Aim  at  bringing  out  before  your  people 
the    Variety  of  Scripture.     This  variety  is*  a 
great    advantage,    both     to     minister    and 
people.       Students   of    the    Old    and   New 


26o  LETTERS   TO  A 

Testament  have  history,  type,  prophecy, 
discourses,  parable,  epistles.  Apocalypse, 
all  as  their  storehouse.  And  if  *'  rightly 
divided,"  the  same  truth  will  come  out  of 
each  of  them,  only  with  different  surround- 
ings— the  same  gem,  with  different  settings. 
When  I  was  first  ordained,  I  preached  upon 
Original  Sin,  and  Justification  by  Faith,  and 
other  cardinal  doctrines  ;  and  I  fancied,  in 
my  conceit  and  ignorance,  I  had  said  all  that 
I  could  say  on  the  subject.  But  time  has 
shown  me  how  superficial  the  thought  was. 
Take  Justification  by  Faith — you  may  preach 
it  not  only  from  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  but,  yet 
more  graphically,  from  Zechariah's  vision  of 
the  change  of  raiment.  The  great  doctrine 
of  the  Atonement — a  doctrine  of  fundamental 
and  vital  importance — is  to  be  found  in  the 
Old  Testament  as  well  as  in  the  New.  **  In 
the  Old  Testament,"  says  Augustine,  *'the 
New  Testament  lies  hid  ;  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  Old  Testament  lies  open."  A 
life's  ministry  will  exhaust  neither  the  hidden 
nor  the  open.  Seek  this  variety  in  preaching 
the  Word  of  God. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  261 

Cultivate  Expository  Preaching.  There  is 
nothing  like  it.  I  recollect  hearing  Dean 
Close  say-^and  those  of  you  who  do  not 
agree  with  his  school  of  theology  must 
acknowledge  that,  during  a  long  life,  he 
has  been  a  great  light  and  a  great  preacher 
— "  I  cannot  be  too  thankful  that,  at  one 
part  of  the  day,  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
taking  a  mass  of  Scripture,  and  explaining 
it  to  the  people."  The  practice,  we  shall 
find,  involves  honesty  to  the  Word  of  God. 
It  secures  us,  too,  against  having/^/  subjects,- 
It  prevents  us  from  dwelling  upon  particular 
portions  of  truth  constantly,  to  the  neglect 
of  comparatively  minor  subjects.  Moreover, 
it  will  sometimes  shield  us  from  the  suspicion 
of  personality.  If  we  take  a  particular  text, 
and  preach  upon  it,  and  it  happens  to  go 
home  more  than  usually  to  one  of  our 
hearers,  we  shall  very  likely  be  accused  of 
personality.  But  when  we  come  across  the 
same  text  in  the  natural  order  of  our  exposi- 
tion, no  one  can  reasonably  say  we  are  guilty 
of  a  direct  attack  upon  him.  At  any  rate, 
we  did  not  go  out  of  our  way  for  our  subject. 


262  LETTERS   TO  A 

Make  very  sure  of  the  original  and  of  the 
context.  How  many  a  man  has  sat  down 
post-haste  to  write  a  sermon,  and  then 
turned,  (happily)  just  at  the  last,  to  his 
Greek  Testament,  and  has  found  '*  It  won't 
do  !  The  original  won't  bear  it."  I  have 
no  sympathy  with  the  scruples  of  some  who 
say  that  we  have  no  business  to  unsettle 
people's  minds  by  a, reference  to  the  original. 
We  must  avoid  pedantry.  There  is  no 
necessity  to  be  always  choosing  texts  just 
for  the  sake  of  airing  our  scholarship.  But 
when  translation  is  manifestly  erroneous, 
and  we  have  a  body  of  scholars  at  our 
back,  it  is  our  solemn  duty  to  translate 
accurately  to  our  people.  Surely  we  dare 
not  present  as  God's  word  a  text  erroneously 
translated.  If,  however,  a  man  is  a  shallow 
scholar,  let  him  know  his  weakness,  and  be 
quite  sure,  before  attempting  to  enlighten 
others,  that  the  authorities  on  which  he 
relies  are  hrst-rate  and  trustworthy. 

We  remember  a  sermon  preached,  many 
years  ago,  before  the  Queen,  from  the  text, 
''Not  slothful  in  business"  (Rom.  xii.   12). 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  263 

The  preacher's  doctrine  was  true  and  prac- 
tical. But  ttJ  ctttouSt}  [Ly]  oKvrjpoi  cannot  mean 
**  not  slothful  in  business,"  as  intending  by 
** business"  our  several  vocations.  It  should 
be  rendered  ''zeal.'' 

A  man  may  preach  a  very  useful  sermon 
from  the  text,  '^  Abstain  from  all  appearance 
of  evil"  (i  Thess.  v.  22).  It  is  very  doubt- 
ful whether  this  is  what  St.  Paul  says.  So 
again,  *'That  no  man  go  beyond  and  defraud 
his  brother  in  any  matter"  (i  Thess.  iv.  6). 
It  is  very  questionable,  indeed,  whether  this 
contains  the  slightest  reference  to  dishonesty. 
It  is  a  delicate  allusion  to  the  painful  subject 
of  which  he  is  speaking  in  the  context. 
**  Whatsoever  is  not  of  faith  is  sin"  (Rom. 
xiv.  23) ; — in  a  sense  this  is  universally  true  ; 
but  if  you  take  it  out  of  the  context,  and 
apply  it,  you  are  liable  to  a  challenge  from 
any  scholar,  as  it  /lere  means  really,  *' What- 
soever your  own  conscience  does  not  tell  you 
to  be  right,  must  be  sin  and  wrong  ^0  yotc.'' 
It  is  not  a  general  proposition.  *'  The  Lord 
added  to  the  Church  daily  such  as  should  be 
saved"  (Acts  ii.  47)  ;  they  were  not  added 


264  LETTERS   TO  A 

in    order   that   they   might    be    saved,    but 
because  they  were  in  process  of  being  saved. 
Many  a  sermon  has  been  preached  from  that 
verse  in  Isaiah,  *'  From  the  sole  of  the  foot 
even  unto  the  head,  there  is  no  soundness  in 
it ;  but  wounds,  and  bruises,  and  putrifying 
sores"    (Isa.   i.  6) ;    and  often   has   it  been 
quoted  as  if  it  refers  primarily  to  the  corrup- 
tion of  human  nature.     Its  meaning  is,  that 
the  Jews  were  so  bruised  and  beaten  by  the 
chastisements  of  God — of  course  as  the  result 
of  their  sins — that,  as  a  nation,  "  the  whole 
head  was  sick,  and  the  whole  heart  faint  " 
(ver.  5).    So  again  with  the  passage,  *' Know- 
ing .  .   .  the  terror  of  the  Lord,  we  persuade 
men"   (2  Cor.  v.   11);   not,  "Knowing  the 
awful   terrors   of  God's  wrath,  we  were   to 
preach  them;"  but  surely,  **  Knowing  the 
fear  of  God,  we  seek  to  persuade  men — our- 
selves being  impelled  by  that  fear." 

These  are  samples.  And  therefore  make 
very  sure  of  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek. 

But,  in  these  days  of  abundant  helps,  it  is 
not  well  to  be  premature  in  rushing  to  Com- 
mentaries in  the  preparation  of  your  sermons. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  265 

Think  a  passage  out  for  yourself  yzr^/;  and 
afterwards  those  able  scholars  whose  works 
may  be  within  your  reach — not  ancient 
Fathers  or  old  Expositors  only,  but  our 
own  Alford,  Wordsworth,  Trench,  Ellicott, 
Lightfoot,  to  say  nothing  of  the  best  of  the 
Germans — may  test  your  own  conclusions. 

With  regard  to  divisions  in  Sermons.     It 
is  important  to  have  them,  as  a  rule,  for  the 
sake  of  others.     They  are  pegs  upon  which 
people's  memories  hang  what  you  have  said. 
There  are  few  who   can    draw  out  a   lucid 
chain   of  reasoning   in    such    a   way   as   to 
ensure  its  being  fastened  on  the  minds  and 
memories  of  those  who  listen  to  it,  unless 
they  have  these  divisions  to  fall  back  upon. 
But  avoid  a  hard  and  fast  line.     Cultivate 
variety  even  in  structure  and  in  argument. 
But,  whether  you   have  divisions  or  no,   be 
sure  to  aim  at  sojuet/mtg,  so  that,   when  the 
sermon  is  over,  no   one  shall  be  at  a  loss 
to   know   what   it   was    about.     Archbishop 
Whateley  used  to   say  that  some  preachers 
"aimed    at   nothing,    and    always    hit  it!" 
The  Archbishop  was  not  without  reason  for 


266  LETTERS  TO  A 

his  complaint.  I  remember  a  clergyman,  a 
most  admirable  pastor,  of  whom,  when  he 
had  left  the  parish,   an  artisan  said  to  his 

successor,  '*  Mr. ,  in  his  sermons,  always 

seemed  to  be  hunting  for  something,  but  had 
never  caught  it  when  he  came  to  the  end." 

With  regard  to  the  exordium  of  a  sermon. 
It  is  advisable  not  to  lose  much  time  over  it. 
It  is  a  great  thing  to  arrest  the  attention  at 
first,  by  a  short  and  pithy  sentence  or  two. 
Throw  thought,  pith,  and  strength  into  the 
opening  remarks.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to 
begin  a  discourse  weakly  or  carelessly. 

Above  all,  avoid  too  abstract  a  style  of 
preaching,  especially  to  plain  and  simple 
folk.  *'  Preach  not  so  much  Christianiiy  as 
Christ."  There  is  a  great  deal  of  differ- 
ence between  the  two — between  a  system  of 
dry,  abstract,  dogmatic  truth,  and  a  real, 
living,  personal  Saviour.  The  Gospel  is 
wrapped  up,  so  to  speak,  in  the  person  and 
nature,  the  offices,  the  work,  the  sufferings 
of  Christ.  To  preach  the  Gospel  is  simply 
to  unfold  these.  It  is  most  important,  in 
reading   the    Gospels,    the    Acts,    and    the 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  267 

Epistles,  to  observe  that  it  is  to  Christ  thus 
personally  7'egarded,  not  to  an  abstract  system, 
that  we  are  directed.  Our  faith  and  love  and 
hope  are  centred  upon  Immanuel  Himself, 
made  flesh,  living,  obeying,  suffering,  rising, 
ascending,  returning  in  His  glory ;  not  so 
much  on  the  atone77ie7it^  as  on  Christ  atoning ; 
not  so  much  on  a  righteousness  in  Christ,  or 
from  Christ,  as  on  the  Lord  our  righteousness. 

It  was  thus  that  Paul  preached  Christ. 
He  kept,  not  so  much  salvation,  as  the 
Saviour,  before  men's  minds  and  hearts. 
We  are  to  keep  before  them,  not  a  lifeless, 
abstract,  speculative  system  ;  but  Christ 
living,  Christ  dying,  Christ  loving  us  and 
giving  Himself  for  us — Christ  risen,  as- 
cended, exalted,  pleading,  sympathising — 
whom  haviiig  jiot  seen  we  love,  but  whom  one 
day  we  shall  see  for  ourselves,  and  our  eyes 
shall  behold,  and  not  another. 

In  like  manner,  do  not  preach  about 
Providence ;  preach  about  God.  There  is 
no  objection  to  the  word  *'  providence  " 
when  used  in  connection  with  God.  But 
when  a  man  says,  *'  I  am  very  thankful  to 


268  LETTERS   TO  A 

Providence,"  *' Providence  has  been  very 
good  to  me,"  I  always  feel  disposed  to 
say,  *'  You  coward !  why  don't  you  say 
God  ?  You  know  you  mean  God  all  the 
time."  It  gives  great  point  and  power  to 
a  sermon  not  to  be  abstract.  Get  your 
people  to  believe  in  a  living,  loving,  per- 
sonal Father,  and  a  living,  loving,  personal 
Saviour.  Remember  what  the  key-phrase 
of  the  New  Testament  is  :  *'  In  Him." 
This  is  the  key-phrase  of  the  Gospel  dis- 
pensation, as  looked  at  experimentally — not 
so  much  a  system,  not  only  a  creed  ;  but 
a  real,  mysterious  union  with  a  living  Person. 
Mark  St.  Paul  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  the 
Romans,  how  he  keeps  this  great  truth  in 
the  fore-front ;  and  in  the  third  chapter  of 
Colossians  (ver.  3),  containing  that  most 
wonderful  of  all  wonderful  texts — I  fancy 
sometimes  it  sounds  as  the  deepest  text  in 
the  whole  Bible — "■  Ye  are  dead,  and  your 
life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God.'*^  Surely  that 
is  not  an  abstract  thing ;  it  is  the  idea 
of  our  life — however  mysteriously — being 
hidden  in  and  with  a  personal  Saviour. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  269 

Bear  with  me,  if,  as  the  result  of  long  ex- 
perience,— while  I  ask  you  not  to  forget  what 
I  have  said  about  preaching  Providence  in- 
stead of  God, — I  add  one  other  exhortation 
on  this  point.  It  is  this :  Preach  ofte^i  on 
the  provide7ice  of  God,  I  would  speak  with 
emphasis  on  this  point,  because  I  have 
seldom  or  never  preached  a  sermon  bear- 
ing directly  on  God's  providence,  but  I 
have  been  privileged  to  receive  grateful 
testimony  as  to  the  usefulness  of  that 
sermon.  In  your  study,  picture  your  con- 
gregation. See  them  in  your  **  mind's 
eye."  Who — what — are  these  to  whom  you 
are  to  preach?  Sinners  and  sufferers.  Some 
oppressed  with  money  cares  and  troubles. 
Rachel  mourning  for  her  children.  Newly 
made  widows.  Husbands  from  whom  the 
desire  of  their  eyes  has  only  just  been 
taken  away.  Children  fatherless  or  mother- 
less. Many  a  one  who,  if  talking  to  you 
in  your  study  or  in  their  own  homes,  would 
say,  ''  Ah  !  Sir,  I  have  seen  much  trouble." 
Yes ;  you  are  going  to  preach  that  sermon 
to  many  a  sin-laden,  sorrow- stricken,  world- 


270  LETTERS    TO  A 

wearied,  restless  heart.  Preach  then  to 
each  and  all  of  these  a  covenant  God,  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  the  "•  exceeding  great 
and  precious  promises."  God's  sufficiency 
in  trial,  the  blessedness  of  trial,  the  uses  of 
affliction,  the  responsibilities  of  a  heavenly 
Father's  chastisement,  and  the  true  end  of 
discipline.  Only  do  this,  and  you  may  be 
quite  sure  your  sermons  v^ill  come  home  to 
the  every-day  life  of  your  hearers,  and  you 
will  have  the  delightful  experience  so  pre- 
cious to  the  minister  of  Christ — not  indeed 
the  empty  flattery  of  silly  women,  nor  vain 
compliments  about  *  a  fine  sermon  ;  "  but 
the  experience  of  something  far  better  and 
far  sweeter — the  grasp  of  the  hand,  and,  it 
may  be,  a  tear  in  the  eye,  with  the  acknow- 
ledgment from  a  comforted  believer  or  an 
awakened  sinner — **  Oh  Sir,  your  sermon 
seemed  as  if  it  were  meant  for  me ;  it 
suited  my  case  exactly.  I  thank  you  for 
it  with  all  my  heart."  This  will  cheer  you 
on  your  way — to  know  that  God,  by  His 
own  Spirit,  has  carried  your  discriminating 
and  loving  words  right  home  to  the  con- 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  271 

science  and  the  heart, — that  you  have  '^filled 
the  hungry  with  good  things." 

Again,  be  07i  your  guard  agai7ist  the  narrow- 
ness of  human  systems.  Would  that  every  can- 
didate for  Holy  Orders  and  every  minister 
would  read  **The  Remains  of  Richard  Cecil" 
— a  small  volume,  sound  in  theology,  and 
teeming  with  sanctified  common  sense.  As 
a  practical  volume  it  is  unrivalled.  Mr. 
Cecil  writes  thus:  **  No  man  will  preach 
the  Gospel  ^o  freely  as  the  Scriptures  preach 
it,  unless  he  will  submit  to  talk  like  an 
Antinomian,  in  the  estimation  of  a  great 
body  of  Christians ;  nor  will  any  man  preach 
it  so  practically  as  the  Scriptures,  unless  he 
will  submit  to  be  called,  by  as  large  a  body, 
an  Arminian.  Many  think  that  they  find  a 
middle  path  :  which  is,  in  fact,  neither  one 
thing  nor  another,  since  it  is  not  the  incom- 
prehensible, but  grand,  plan  of  the  Bible. 
It  is  somewhat  of  human  contrivance.  It 
savours  of  human  poverty  and  littleness."  * 
*'  The  right  way  of  interpreting  Scripture  is 
to  take  it  as  we  find  it,  without  any  attempt 

*  "Cecil's  Remains,"  loth  Edit.,  p.  289. 


272  LETTERS  TO  A 

to  force  it  into  any  particular  system.  What- 
ever may  be  fairly  inferred  from  Scripture, 
we  need  not  fear  to  insist  on.  Many 
passages  speak  the  language  of  what  is 
called  Calvinism,  and  that  in  almost  the 
strongest  terms.  I  would  not  have  a  man 
clip  and  curtail  these  passages,  to  bring 
them  down  to  some  system  :  let  him  go 
with  them  in  their  free  and  full  sense  ;  for, 
otherwise,  if  he  do  not  absolutely  pervert 
them,  he  will  attenuate  their  energy.  But 
let  him  look  at  as  many  more,  which  speak 
the  language  of  Arminianism,  and  let  him 
go  all  the  way  with  these  also.  God  has 
been  pleased  thus  to  state  and  to  leave  the 
thing ;  and  all  our  attempts  to  distort  it,  one 
way  or  other,  are  puny  and  contemptible."  '** 

Preach  not  only  what  is  in  Scripture,  but 
preach  it  as  Scripture  puts  it.  Truth  is  pre- 
sented in  varied  aspects  in  the  Bible.  No 
ultra- Calvinist  would  have  said,  **  Make  you 
a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit  "  (Ezek.  xviii. 
31) ;  yet  God  says  it. 

In  some  of  our  old-fashioned  towns,   we 

*  Ibid,  p.  290. 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  273 

see  the  box  trees  closely  cropped — not  a 
twig,  not  a  leaf  straggling — all  trim  and 
tidy.  They  are  curiosities.  But  we  all 
greatly  prefer  to  see  them  as  they  were 
naturally,  and  before  the  shears  did  their 
work  so  well  with  the  twigs  and  branches. 
Why  ?  because  it  is  as  God  made  the  tree. 
Beware,  then,  of  clipping  and  cramping  the 
fulness  and  freedom  and  simplicity  of  God's 
truth  with  your  own  pet  shears. 

As  regards  simplicity,  an  eminent  Dis- 
senting minister  once  said  to  me,  when 
speaking  of  the  evangelical  clergy,  '^  I  am 
afraid,  in  their  desire  to  be  simple  in  their 
preaching,  they  are  becoming  shallow :  there 
is  no  theology  in  their  sermons."  Simpli- 
city is  not  necessarily  shallowness.  Sermons 
should  be  vertebrated ;  they  should  have  a 
back-bone  of  sound,  distinctive  theology. 

Much  evil  has  followed  from  too  great 
anxiety  about  the  dignity  of  the  pulpit.  I  am 
not  speaking  of  the  dignity  of  the  office^  but 
the  dignity  of  the  style,  *'  The  good  old 
Church  of  England,"  it  was  once  observed, 
''  is  dying  of  dignity."     Thank  God  !  that  is 

18 


2  74  LET2ERS   10  A 

not  true  now.  But  the  great  majority  of  the 
clergy  seem  to  be  afraid  of  a  homely  word, 
or  familiar  every-day  expression  in  the 
pulpit,  and  thus  very  many  of  our  sermons 
fly  over  the  heads  of  our  people  altogether. 
We  are  not  to  be  coarse  or  vulgar.  Avoid 
"  sesquipedalia  verba."  There  is  a  great 
deal  of  nonsense  written  and  talked  about 
Saxon  words.  Never  mind  whether  it  is  a 
Saxon  word  or  not ;  is  it  a  word  which  the 
people  will  understand?  That's  the  point. 
Never  mind  whence  it  comes.  Many  Saxon 
words,  however,  are  far  better  understood  in 
the  majority  of  congregations  than  words 
from  Latin  or  Greek  sources.  It  is  better 
to  talk  of  ''  happiness  "  than  *'  felicity ;  "  to 
speak  of  '*home"  rather  than  the  **  domes- 
tic circle;"  and  of  **  heaven  "  rather  than 
the  "■  celestial  regions." 

If  you  have  a  talent  for  it,  it  is  most 
important  to  cultivate  the  power  of  Illus- 
tration— '^  windows  which  let  in  the  light." 
But  they  are  not  arguments.  We  are  not 
to  feed  our  congregations  upon  them.  We 
do  not  live  upon  flowers,  but  they  are  very 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN. 


275 


pleasant  in  their  way.     This  is  one  of  the 
secrets  of  Mr.  Spurgeon's  power.     He  has  a 
wonderful  gift  of  illustration.     Referring  to 
that  controverted  point  of  the  believer  fall- 
ing away — the  indefectibility   of  grace — he 
once  made  this  observation,   from   his  own 
standpoint  of  truth   (about  which  I  am  not 
arguing  now),  '*  The  believer,  like  a  man  on 
shipboard,  may  fall  again  and  again  on  the 
deck,    but    he   will    never   fall    overboard." 
You  may  agree  or  not  with  the  statement, 
but   you   will  admit   that   the  illustration  is 
striking.       Again,     ^'We     mustn't     preach 
cream,    and    live    skimmed    milk."      Very 
homely,  but  very  striking.     The  admirable 
Dr.  Guthrie — as  a  rule  too  flowery  and  too 
much  given  to  illustration — said  once,  **  A 
selfish  man — whose  heart  is  no  bigger  than 
his  coffin  ;  just  room  enough  for  himself." 
These  are  nails  in  a  sure  place. 

Preach  doctrine  practically^  and  practice 
doctrinally.  Interweave  the  two.  Good  Dr. 
Marsh  once  said  to  me,  *'  It  is  a  difficult 
thing  to  preach  a  whole  epistle;  "  by  which 
he  meant  to  preach  both  the  doctrinal  part 


276  LETTERS  TO  A 

and  the  practical.  Take  the  second  chap- 
ter of  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  Titus — a  great 
model  for  us.  See  how  he  grounds  upon 
the  grace  of  God,  which  bringeth  salvation, 
and  upon  the  redeeming  work  of  Christ,  the 
duty  of  servants  to  be  honest,  and  not  even 
to  give  a  saucy  answer.  Aim  at  every-day 
life.  Aim  at  the  counting-house,  the  shop, 
and  weights  and  measures,  and  the  adulter- 
ation of  goods,  and  trade  lies.  Aim  at  the 
drawing-room,  the  nursery,  and  the  kitchen. 
Aim  at  crabbed  tempers,  harsh  judgments. 
Spare  neither  tattlers  nor  busy-bodies. 

Do  not  be  afraid  of  your  pew-rents.  The 
Rev.  William  Howels,  of  Long  Acre,  a 
great  preacher  in  his  day,  was  anxious  to 
ascertain,  by  pastoral  visitation,  whether  his 
sermons  had  been  understood.  One  day  he 
called  on  a  woman  who  kept  a  small  huck- 
ster's shop,  and  who  had  heard  him  preach 
on  the  previous  Sunday.  In  answer  to  his 
testing  inquiries,  she  said,  ''Well,  Sir,  I 
comed  home  and  burnt  my  bushel !  "  She 
had  used  a  dishonest  measure,  but  he  had 
touched  her   conscience,  and   this   was   the 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  277 

practical  result.     Give  me  a  sermon  which 
makes  sinners  burn  their  bushels. 

Aim  at  the  conscience — the  heart — and 
not  the  head  only.  Do  not  forget  that  your 
people  have  got  hearts  as  well  as  heads.  It 
is  therefore  a  great  mistake  to  be  afraid  of 
exciting  the  feehngs.  This  should  not  be 
done  unduly.  It  is  easy  to  make  women  cry 
— and  some  men  too.  But  God  appeals  to 
our  feelings.  We  too  must  appeal  to  them. 
*'  No  preacher  is  a  preacher  who  cannot 
satisfy  the  understanding;  but  he  is  a  bad 
preacher  who  leaves  off  there." 

I  pass  on  now  to  the  vexed  question — and 
I  shall  not  attempt  to  settle  it — of  Written  or 
Exttmpore  Servions.  Certainly  you  must  cul- 
tivate the  art  of  extempore  speaking.  It  is 
really  essential  in  the  present  day.  On  many 
important  occasions  a  man  is  positively 
nowhere  as  a  clergyman  who  cannot  get 
up  and  speak,  with  self-possession,  good 
sense,  and  fluently.  At  public  meetings 
there  is  a  sad  contrast  between  the  young 
clergyman  and  the  young  barrister.  You 
go  up  to  a  young  minister  and  say,  **  Would 


278  LETTERS   TO  A 

you  say  a  few  words  ?  "  And  the  answer  is, 
**  I  am  no  speaker."  But  go  to  a  young 
barrister  with  a  brief  in  your  hand — his  start 
in  life,  perhaps.  Does  he  say,  **  I  am  no 
speaker — I  am  too  nervous — I  shall  break 
down — you  must  excuse  me ' '  ?  Not  a  bit 
of  it.  I  say  therefore  to  one  and  all — 
Cultivate  the  art.  Of  course  there  are 
dangers  connected  with  it.  But,  as  Arch- 
deacon Evans  says,  *'  It  is  more  dangerous 
than  difficult."  Too  many  men  mistake 
fluency  for  fertility,  and  froth  for  substance. 
It  is  extremely  desirable  to  preach  extem- 
pore, if  you  can.  There  is  a  mysterious 
sympathy  between  hearers  and  speaker, 
which  goes  very  far  to  rivet  the  attention 
more  closely  to  extempore  preaching.  You 
will  look  your  people  more  fully  in  the  face. 
This  is  a  great  matter.  The  power  of  the 
eye  is  great.  Only  you  must  be  careful 
not  to  make  your  hearers  nervous  lest  you 
should  break  down.  Master  your  subject ; 
get  your  mind  full  of  it;  make  up  your 
mind  what  you  are  going  to  say. 

With  regard  to  the  plan  of  delivering  a 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  279 

sermon  memoriter.  This  is,  of  all  plans,  the 
least  desirable.  You  will  be  hampered  by 
trying  to  fall  back  accurately  on  your  pre- 
pared notes  or  manuscript.  And  even  if 
you  succeed,  your  sermon  must  lose  almost 
always  much  of  its  spontaneity  and  natural- 
ness ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  wear  to  the 
mind,  which  is  very  great.  Many  and  many 
a  man,  simply  from  pacing  up  and  down  his 
study,  committing  his  sermon  to  memory, 
and  then  delivering  it  verbatim  on  the  Sun- 
day, has  damaged  his  health,  and  his  brain 
tpo.  You  may  take  my  word  for  what  it  is 
worth — I  do  not  stand  here  as  an  oracle — 
but  I  believe  it  to  be,  except  in  some  rare 
cases,  the  most  trying  plan  of  all. 

It  is  very  important,  if  our  sermons  are 
written,  not  to  be  slaves  to  the  book.  We 
must  know  thoroughly  well  what  we  are 
going  to  say,  remembering  w^hat  Bishop 
Burnet's  rule  is,  that  a  discourse,  to  be 
heard  with  any  life,  must  be  spoken  with 
some. 

Above  all  things,  when  you  are  in  the 
pulpit,    strive    to   realize    God's   presence; 


28o  LETTERS   TO  A 

realize  whose  work  it  is  in  which  you  are 
engaged ;  realize  the  interests'  which  are  at 
stake — that  you  have  the  truth  of  God  as 
your  trust ;  and  then — words  cannot  tell  you 
how  earnestly  I  would  say  it — cast  yourself 
entirely,  and  all  your  preparation,  on  the 
present  help  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  This 
gives  unction — that  indescribable  thing 
which  makes  a  sermon  from  an  inferior  man 
often  far  more  effective  than  a  grand  sermon 
from  a  great  preacher.  Mr.  Simeon  said, 
^*  Don't  preach  as  if  you  were  preaching 
before  people;  don't  preach  as  if  you  were 
preaching  at  people;  but  preach  as  if  you 
were  preaching  to  people."  I  take  it,  this 
is  a  great  defect  in  the  preaching  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  the  present  day; 
there  is  not  enough  of  the  *'  Thou  "  and  the 
**  Yoity  We  lack  directness.  Too  many 
preach  as  if  they  were  preaching  before  the 
people ;  instead  of  which  they  ought  to  feel, 
*'  Now  I  am  determined  you  shall  not  sit 
there  and  criticise  me ;  I  will  take  good  care 
not  to  leave  you  in  the  position  of  suppos- 
ing that  I  am  reading  an  essay,  and  you  are 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  281 

to  judge  it.  I  am  preaching  a  sermon — a 
message  from  God — and  that  sermon  is  to 
judge  you." 

Preach  then  with  a  direct  aim.  Be  very 
earnest  in  your  pulpit  exhortations.  "  Re- 
member that  in  all  this  you  have  a  real  work 
to  do.  Let  this  thought  be  always  with  you. 
Go  out  to  visit  in  your  parish,  not  because 
you  ought  to  spend  so  much  time  in  visiting 
your  people,  but  because  they  have  souls  ; 
and  you  have  committed  to  you  (feeble  as 
you  are)  the  task  of  saving  them,  in  Christ's 
strength,  from  everlasting  burnings.  When 
you  talk  with  them,  beware  of  the  dreamy 
listlessness  which  would  decently  fill  up  some 
ten  minutes  with  kindness,  good  words,  an 
inquiry  as  to  their  families,  their  work,  their 
health,  ending  possibly  with  a  formal 
prayer  ;  but  say  to  yourself.  Now  must  I  get 
into  this  heart  some  truth  from  God.  Be  real 
with  them ;  strike  as  one  that  would  make  a 
dint  upon  their  shield  of  hardness,  yea,  and 
smite  through  it  to  their  heart  of  hearts. 
When  you  preach,  be  real.  Set  your  people 
before   you   in  their  numbers,  their  wants, 


282  LETTERS  TO  A 

their  dangers,  their  capacities :  chobse  a 
subject,  not  to  show  yourself  off,  but  to 
benefit  them ;  and  then  speak  straight  to 
them,  as  you  would  beg  your  life,  or  counsel 
your  son,  or  call  your  dearest  friend  from 
a  burning  house,  in  plain,  strong,  earnest 
words."* 

Be  very  earnest  in  your  pulpit  exhort- 
ations. But  do  not  scold,  nor  rant.  ''  It  is 
the  thunder  that  frights,  but  the  lightning 
that  smites."  In  a  work,  not  sufficiently 
known,  by  the  Abbe  Mullois,  great  stress  is 
laid  upon  a  **  spirit  of  love  in  the  pulpit." 
The  Abbe  remarks,  **  After  the  many  rules 
for  eloquence  which  have  been  laid  down  of 
late  years,  strange  to  say,  the  first  and  most 
essential  of  all  has  been  overlooked,  viz., 
charity ;  to  address  men  well,  they  must  be 
loved  muchy 

Remember  that  we  are  not  to  elevate 
ourselves,  as  if  we  were  superior  beings. 
One  secret  of  an  effective  ministry  is  to  put 
yourself,  and  to  let  the  people  see  that  you 
put  yourself,    on    the   same   platform   with 

•^  Bishop  of  Oxford's  Ordination  Charge,  1846,  pp.  16,  17. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  283 

them.  *'  I  am  a  sinner  ;  I  am  a  sorrower;  I 
have  felt  the  burden  under  which  you  are 
suffering."  When  you  speak  of  the  loss  of 
a  child,  or  parent,  or  wife,  as  the  case  may 
be,  without  talking  of  yourself,  let  them  see 
that  you  have  gone  through  the  same  trials 
(if  indeed  it  has  been  so),  and  that  therefore 
you  can  feel  for,  and  feel  with,  them. 

As  to  '*  Action''  in  the  pulpit.  I  suppose 
we  are  all  agreed  that  to  Englishmen  excess 
of  action  is  distasteful.  Rules  are  undesir- 
able. Be  natural.  I  am  no  advocate  for 
the  '*  start  theatric,  practised  at  a  glass." 
But  if  you  have  a  tendency  to  action,  if  your 
temperament  is  such  that  you  find  it  difficult 
to  throw  it  off,  do  not  discourage  it.  If 
hands  and  arms  will  work,  let  them.  Check 
excess.  But  do  not  pin  them  down,  as  long 
as  their  action  is  natural.  Let  them  go. 
Speaking  of  the  hand  as  an  organ  of  ex- 
pression. Sir  Charles  Bell  says,  *'  Were  we 
to  seek  for  authorities,  we  should  take  in 
evidence  the  works  of  the  great  painters. 
By  representing  the  hands  disposed  in  con- 
formity with  the  attitude  of  the  figures,  the 


284  LETTERS   TO  A 

old  masters  have  been  able  to  express  every 
different   kind   of  sentiment   in    their   com- 
positions.    Who,  for  example,  has  not  been 
sensible   to   the  expression  of  reverence  in 
the  hands  of  the  Magdalens  by  Guido,  to 
the   eloquence   of  those  in    the   cartoons  of 
Raphael,  or  the  significant  force  in  those  of 
the  Last   Supper   by  Da  Vinci  ?     In    these 
great  works  may  be  seen  all  that  Quintilian 
says   the   hand   is   capable    of    expressing ; 
*  For   other  parts   of    the   body   assist    the 
speaker,  but  these,  I  may  say,  speak  them- 
selves.    By  them  we  ask,  we  promise,  we 
invoke,  we  dismiss,  we  threaten,  we  entreat, 
we  deprecate,   we  express  fear,  joy,    grief, 
our  doubts,  our  assent,  our  penitence  ;    we 
show  moderation  and   profusion  ;    we   mark 
number  and  time. '  "  *     It  has  its  power  in 
the  pulpit,  to  an  extent  of  which  very  few 
are  aware.     Therefore,  much  as  we  may  per- 
haps question  the  desirability  of  constantly 
having  recourse  to  this  method  of  securing 
attention    or    impressing   the    mind,    it    is 

*  Bridgwater  Treatise. — The  Hand.     By  Sir  Charles  Bell. 
Sixth  Edition,  i860,  p.  166. 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN.  28:; 


certain  that,  judiciously  employed,  it  has 
that  effect.  The  want  of  natural  and 
moderate  action  is  a  great  and  general 
defect  in  English  preaching. 

I  must  make  a  few  observations,  and  they 
shall  be  very  few,  upon  the  practice  of 
preaching  other  people's  sermons.  I  know 
that  some  of  our  bishops — and  good  bishops 
too — have  recommended  it ;  and  I  grant  you 
that,  now  and  then,  a  vicar  or  a  rector  does 
put  his  curate  under  the  necessity  of  over- 
preaching.  A  beginner  has  two  or  three 
sermons  to  prepare  in  a  week.  The  unfor- 
tunate man  finds  his  duties  somewhat  diffi- 
cult of  fulfilment,  and  he  is  driven  to  borrow. 
There  may  be  exceptional  cases  of  pressure. 
But,  as  a  rule,  my  advice  is,  preach  your 
own  only.  If  you  preach  other  men's,  tell 
your  people  that  they  are  not  your  own. 
Tell  them  that  you  have  been  hard-worked 
throughout  the  week,  or  so  unwell  that  you 
have  selected  a  sermon  for  them.  But  not 
seldom  men  who  borrow  borrow  the  sermons 
of  the  greatest  preachers,  and  thus  give 
something  immeasurably  above   what   they 


286  '    LETTERS  TO  A 

could  have  produced.  And  ask  yourself 
whether,  when  you  take  your  manuscript  or 
notes  into  the  pulpit,  you  do  not  seem  to 
say  before  God  and  man,  **That  is  my  own." 
To  preach  other  men's  sermons  without 
acknowledgment  seems  to  be  at  least  an 
equivocal  proceeding.  But  I  make  no  re- 
flection on  others.  *'  Let  every  man  be 
fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind." 

There  are  also  secondary  considerations 
in  connection  with  the  habit,  which  will  not 
be  trifling  ones.  Generally,  as  I  have  said, 
those  who  preach  other  people's  sermons 
preach  those  that  are  far  superior  to  their 
own ;  and  the  consequence  is,  that,  now  and 
then,  they  are  placed  in  a  very  awkward 
position.  I  remember  the  case  of  a  clergy- 
man who  preached  for  me  many  years  ago, 
and  was  extremely  dexterous  in  doing  it. 
He  took  the  precaution  to  adopt  a  different 
text.  He  preached,  not  verbatmi  et  literatim^ 
but  substantially,  another  man's  sermon  from 
*'They  that  are  Christ's  have  crucified  the 
flesh,  with  the  affections  and  lusts"  (Gal.  v. 
24) — a  sermon  in  which  the  character  of  the 


YOUNG   CLERGYMAN.  287 

true  Christian  was  depicted.  But  he  took  a 
very  different  text.  He  went  to  Daniel, 
*'Thou  are  weighed  in  the  balances,  and  art 
found  wanting"  (Dan.  v.  27).  And  when 
Hugh  White  made  out  such  and  such  a  man 
was  not  a  Christian  by  St.  Paul's  tests,  my 
friend  put  the  false  professor  into  the 
''balance,"  and  found  him  "wanting." 
But  now  the  awkward  part  of  the  story  has 
to  be  told.  The  sermon  made  such  an  im- 
pression upon  the  congregation,  that  he 
was  straightway  asked  to  print  it !  Such 
is  the  awkward  position  in  which  you  may 
find  yourself. 

I  have  heard  of  another  case.  A  minister 
had  preached  in  the  morning  a  very  good 
sermon,  and  promised  to  finish  his  subject 
in  the  evening.  Lucklessly,  the  wife  of  the 
friend  for  whom  he  was  preaching  recog- 
nised the  sermon,  and  went  to  her  husband's 
bookcase  between  the  services,  and  laid  the 
preacher's  evening  sermon  in  the  study 
which  he  was  to  occupy.  She  had  a  wife's 
jealousy  for  her  husband's  reputation,  as 
the  "  strange  preacher"  had  outshone  him. 


288  LETTERS   TO   A 

But,  to  speak  more  seriously,  preach  it  as 
you  will,  and  though  the  sermon  may  be  a 
better  one  than  your  own,  there  will  be  a 
want  of  freshness  about  it.  It  will  not  have 
been  thought  out,  nor  prayed  over,  in  the 
same  way  as  your  own,  and  you  cannot  look 
for  the  same  blessing  as  upon  the  product  of 
your  own  thought  and  labour  and  prayer. 

I  must  draw  to  a  close.  In  all  your 
preaching  remember  the  words  of  George 
Herbert — "The  greatest  and  hardest  pre- 
paration is  within."  "The  character  of  his 
sermon  is  holiness.  It  is  gained,  first,  by 
choosing  texts  of  devotion,  not  controversy, 
— moving  and  ravishing  texts,  whereof  the 
Scriptures  are  full.  Secondly,  by  dipping 
and  seasoning  all  our  words  and  sentences 
in  our  hearts  before  they  come  into  our 
mouths,  truly  and  cordially  expressing  all 
we  say,  so  that  the  auditors  may  plainly 
testify  that  every  word  is  heart  deep."  Nor 
let  it  be  forgotten  that  it  is  one  thing  to 
preach  an  occasional  sermon  as  a  stranger, 
but  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  be  preaching 
as  a  pastor  going  in    and   out  among  his 


YOUNG    CLERGYMAN,  289 

people.  Cecil  says,  **We  look  at  a  man 
out  of  the  pulpit  to  see  what  he  is  worth  in 
it;  "  and  Cowper  tells  us  that  he  venerates 
the  man 

"  whose  doctrine  and  whose  life 
Coincident,  exhibit  lucid  proof 
That  he  is  honest  in  the  sacred  cause." 

{Task:  Timepiece.) 

**  You  are  always,"  says  Archdeacon  Evans, 
**  in  public."  The  main  secret  of  the  power 
of  the  minister  is  that  his  whole  life  is  a 
continual  sermon.  On  the  other  hand,  not 
all  the  powers  of  a  Boanerges  will  compen- 
sate for  the  evil  influence  of  an  inconsistent 
life.  We  may  apply  the  illustration  which 
I  have  already  quoted,  **  We  must  noX.  preach 
cream,  and  live  skimmed  milk."  The 
standard  of  the  life  sermon  must  not  fla- 
grantly differ  from  the  standard  of  the  pulpit 
sermon.  The  'r)QiKy]  Trto-rt?  is  mighty  in  its  pre- 
sence and  mighty  in  its  absence, — '*  ay^^^ov, 

WS  etTTetl/,  KVpiCOTaTT]!/  eX€L  TTLCTTLV  TO  TjOo^J^  *       It 

was  once  said  of  an  able  preacher,  '*  When 
he   is  in  the  pulpit,   it  is  a  pity  he  should 

*  Aristot.  Rhetoric,  i.  2. 

19 


2  90     LETTERS  TO  A  YOUNG  CLERGYMAN. 

ever  come  out  of  it ;  and  when  he  is  out  of 
it,  it  is  a  pity  he  ever  gets  into  it."  Well 
indeed  it  is  for  Paul,  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas, 
or  Boanerges,  if  his  daily  life  '*  allures  to 
brighter  worlds,  and  leads  the  way," — if 
*'  Be  ye  followers  of  me  as  I  am  of  Christ," 
be  not  mockery  on  his  tongue.  The  pos- 
sibility of  preaching  to  others,  and  being 
oneself  **  a  castaway," — what  more  urgent 
incentive  to  prayer,  watchfulness,  to  circum- 
spection, to  consistency,  to  holy  living  ?  A 
devil  might  shudder  to  see  a  great  preacher 
drop  from  his  pulpit  into  hell. 


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